Goodbye, AR-9

[ar_pro]

We were in the market for a turntable/arm/cartridge to play some vintage vinyl, and decided to check out a few of the boutique audio stores within a reasonable driving distance. Our system has been relatively stable since the last amplifier upgrade a few years ago, with the only new purchases being increasingly larger hard drives for the music server.

Visiting the various shops involved the standard qualification process, wherein we revealed enough information regarding our system & musical habits to the salespeople so as to avoid wasting time on some of the more ludicrous turntables that are currently available; and mentioning that we weren't "audiophiles", hoping to keep a lid on the hyperbole.

We'd usually describe our musical tastes, and then name the manufacturers of our amplification and digital front-end, which served to provide the sales guy with a pretty good idea of where we stood, price-wise. And bringing up the rear was a mention of the mighty AR-9, which we most often described as "a pair of restored Acoustic Research AR-9's".

Maybe 10% of the people we encountered had an idea (or at least pretended to) of what was special about these old speakers, but they all seemed intrigued when they were explained in greater detail. At any rate, we assured the sales guys that we'd settled into a real comfort zone with the 9's and there was very little likelihood that we'd find ourselves in the market for modern replacements anytime soon.

And so, we tested turntables - these were usually played through good amplification, and into fine loudspeakers, including models from Focal, Wilson, Sonus Faber, Definitive, McIntosh, Martin Logan, and a few others. The systems all sounded pretty much like we'd expected - usually punchy, and with a narrow, focused-in sort of aspect. Some were subjective improvements on our AR-9's in one or two areas, but none of them out-performed the AR-9 in every sense, and the best all-around performer carried a $50,000 price tag.

Over the years, and before finally rebuilding & settling in with this most recent pair of AR-9 systems, we'd owned any number of loudspeakers, including quite a few that rolled out the door from Acoustic Research, as well as Advent, JBL, Altec-Lansing, ESS, Martin, Acoustat, Cerwin Vega (don't ask), and a host of lesser-known black sheep. The absolute one thing that these different designs (acoustic suspension, bass-reflex, vented port, electrostatic, direct-radiating, bipolar, dipolar, coaxial, 2-way, 3- way, etc.) had in common was that they all sounded like speakers. That is, they provided an approximation of instruments & voice that you KNEW was coming out of "that thing, over there". No matter how extended the bass, how sweet the highs, how hair-blowing the midrange, anyone with ears knew that this was a manufactured experience.

The closest we ever came to that moment wherein your jaw drops, and you lean in, bug-eyed, was with the Acoustat 2+2; an eight-foot high, full-range electrostatic that ate up wattage like a hyena at a kill. Unfortunately, its "X marks the spot" listening window was so narrow that in most cases, it wasn't enough to overcome the system's significant shortcomings in frequency extension and dynamic range. But boy-oh-boy when it was on...

Which brings me to the epiphany.

Still turntable-hunting, I'd brought along a really nice vintage copy of Kind Of Blue that I knew inside & out, and asked the owner of the shop to let us listen to it on one of his better turntables. Having understood what our present speakers were about, he asked if we'd be willing to audition the turntable on a set of Magnepan speakers.
"Sure", I said - I haven't heard Maggies in years, why not? My significant other had already settled into a chair when the needle hit the groove, and for the first time in my life, I actually heard the music, and not the reproduction. Nevermind that I suddenly, and for the first time, noticed that certain notes from Paul Chambers' bass caused the drummer's snare to buzz in resonance, or that my wife (a musician with perfect pitch) assured me afterward that Bill Evans' piano had two flat notes; a sense of envelopment was in that listening space - a transformative, undeniable experience that went beyond the normal method of assessment that I'd always brought to a listening test.

Long story short(er), we wound up buying a pair of the new Magnepan 3.7i systems, and have been listening to them at every opportunity - talk about rediscovering your record collection! The turntable issue was resolved with a vintage Thorens 125/SME combination from eBay (something else to tinker with), and the mighty AR-9 systems have gone to a stunned former employee who'd always voiced his love for them.

So never say never!

[Joel]

The Magnepan factory is just up the road from where I live (White Bear Lake, Minnesota). I have a friend with an old pair of Magnepan's that needed repair, so I helped him drop them off a couple of months ago. We took a tour of the factory and they took us through all the stages of building the speakers.

Unfortunately they had all their finished speakers off to a show somewhere, so they didn't have anything for us to listen to. I will say that after seeing how they are made, there doesn't seem to be much to them- basically just a box of wires. None of the employees seemed all that knowledgeable about the technical aspects of the speakers, so asking questions wasn't very useful. Again, their more knowledgeable people were probably at the show at the time.

I'm not sure what model my friend has, but they are quite old. He has offered to let me borrow them, and I may take him up on the offer at some point.

Roy- my biggest question would be how the bass response holds up to what you are used to with the AR9?

-Joel

[ar_pro]

It's a gestalt experience, and not quantifiable by ordinary technique - you wind up talking about music, and not sound reproduction.

As I mentioned, many of the speaker systems that we heard when auditioning turntables had performance aspects that would be considered superior to the AR-9, the bass included.

None of them were better than the 9 in every regard, and the 9 was not equal to the best of the others in any single respect.

But they all sounded like "speakers".

The point is, that none of them provided an experience like the 3.7i - something that was beyond a manufactured sound - an outcome that always seems to be reducible to individual envelopes of performance, like "how the bass resonse holds up".

Having heard Maggies before, I just assumed that I was prepared, but this was a paradigm shift.

Ex post facto, I read this description of the earlier model 3.7 from Absolute Sound - it comes pretty close to explaining things:

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/magnepan-37-first-impressions/

and this guy attempts to dissect the speaker, a bit:

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/first-listen-magnepan-37i-loudspeaker/

[frankmarsi]

5-30-14

ar_pro, forgive my prying here but, I’m a little unclear as to what you’re saying?

Are you leaving or have you left the AR camp?

This reminds me of when I received my discharge papers while in the service. When I started to brag and tell every friend I had on base that I was leaving for good, I was met with an almost instantaneous cold-shoulder and dismissal by many as each went off into their own usual little world realizing I was soon to be out of the loop and our friendship was closing.

I didn’t care, nor felt any remorse, I was going home to my 17 year old girl, a beautiful young blue-eyed ‘hottie’, my parents and family and my Fender Bassman amp and Hofner Beatle bass and ’64 Impala to pick-up the pieces I had left behind upon entering the service.

Are you saying that the Maggies have captured your interests and now are happy to be in a new place? Best of luck and all the best to you if you do. Personally, I’m so overwhelmed with AR speakers here, it would be nuts turning back now!

I’ve never heard these speakers, but have read glorious reviews and indications that they are excellent and I even considered them in day dream fantasies, never making the move to buy though.

I’d love to hear a pair, but here in central Jersey, there’s no such place in my knowledge to do so. I’m not trekking off into Manhattan, that dreadful shell of a place that it used to be, to seek out the last few places that may offer an opportunity to listen to them.

I can also imagine that the Maggies may be a future possibility for me to venture off into, but I’m quite satisfied as I have always been with my double LSTs, and lately learning how to appreciate my AR-9s. Personally I prefer the LSTs.

If your leanings are with the Maggies, I can appreciate your stance, and wish the best. In any event I’m sure that you’ll enjoy your new under taking.

Regarding the turntable issue. If I may, I’d like to ask if the vinyl playback came along at the same time the Maggies did?

I have two TD125s, one in almost mint condition and it sports a S.M.E. Non-Improved arm. The other I had to refurbish and repair a bent lower metal chassis.

It all worked well when I finished cleaning the bearing well and setting it up.

However I still prefer my SL-120Mk1 direct-drives, but nonetheless both tables share some degree of playback sound qualities. And it’s a known fact that the Thorens was the table of choice before the Technics DD hit the market for consumers. Neither of course was intended for DJ use, things just went that way because of these table's ruggedness.

So, my point/question is if you’re going to stay in the Maggie camp might you be wondering if this CSP site will newly include a place to discuss these new to you speakers along with others who may also enjoy adding other brands and related topic discussions. I mean there are categories for Dynaco, Rectilinear, etc., why not some other brands also. Phase Linear amps are still widely used by many regardless of their attributes good or bad, so why not other categories too?

Am I rocking the boat too much along with you here?

And as long as you’re venturing off into vinyl-land, why not consider a Denon SUT and DL-301II cartridge too? I’ve been thinking about a Dynavector Karat lately.

When I acquired the moving-coil bug, it was the best upgrade I actually ever made to my system. It became the most noticeable one at least and propelled my system to another level of greatness, so much so that I use my once highly prized and cherished AT-150MLX and AT-440MLa for quality checks of used, un-washed records that find their way into my house. Though, critical listening is done exclusively with moving-coils, the Den-n DL-304 and DL-301II. In fact I may go buy a few more records today since I haven’t done so in over 2 months. If I come home with another hundred or so, it will bring my collection to nearly 4500 or more disks. It has really grown into an addiction for me! Most guests see me a a ‘hoarder’ and I must agree. But, I wallow in vinyl happiness just the same. while they're using lower end playback and mediums. There are only two rooms that don’t have records lying around in, the kitchen and the bathroom. There’s just no room for this many in my house or anyone else’s.

Maggies take up a lot of room, but a large vinyl collection is something else to deal with if you start buying and using records as a main playback source as I do. Then there's the vinyl washing machine and other related items.

Just to BS some more, this week I’m listening to my Revox A77Mk.IV using excellent tapes I made off of vinyl in 1990. Using a Shure Type 3 back then rendered some excellent results I might add.

In the hi-fi cloud for some anyway, there seems to be a move back to 10 &1/2 inch 2 track tape regardless of the scarcity and expense. The quality if recorded properly is almost intoxicating, while sounding very ‘natural’ and engaging. In some circles it has been stated that tape still is considered ‘the ultimate’ format in terms of play-back quality. I’ve noticed just with-in the last few months that ten-inch tape machines have increased in used prices on the web. There's even a few companies that sell high-quality new tapes of select music, and even a company that restores certain prized tape machines to new and higher levels of play-back quality.

Good luck with your choices, somehow I’d like to hear more of your thoughts of the Maggies. Hmmmm, where would this happen?

fm

[JKent]

Long story short(er), we wound up buying a pair of the new Magnepan 3.7i systems, and have been listening to them at every opportunity - talk about rediscovering your record collection! The turntable issue was resolved with a vintage Thorens 125/SME combination from eBay (something else to tinker with), and the mighty AR-9 systems have gone to a stunned former employee who'd always voiced his love for them.

So never say never!

Interesting, but what about your screen name? Should we start calling you Maggie? (Shirley, you can't be serious!)

Good to know even die-hard AR fans are not so parochial as to dismiss every other brand.

When CSP member ToastedAlmond sold me my current speakers, the AR-3s, he showed me his "man cave". Although there were AR-9s in the living room, the speakers he showed off were the Carver Amazings. They lived up to their name!

If I had the room I'd love to try a pair of Maggies. Ones that I've heard, briefly, have been pretty impressive. And although I like a broad variety of music, Kind of Blue would rank in my top 10 albums (maybe top 5).

Happy listening!

Kent

[DavidR]

Hey Maggie Mae

You don't find those Maggies a bit thin?

Then again we all have different ears.

[ar_pro]

The thing is, I've been using the same ears for awhile, so unless I've just suddenly gone crazy, there's something extraordinary going on here.

Sorry, guys, I just can't explain it any better - this was a transcendental experience, unmatched in my previous encounters - kind of like Siddhartha at his moment of illumination.

Most importantly, I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, or even shift an opinion.

I just felt my experience (within our shared context of being Acoustic Research enthusiasts) merited at least an attempt at explication, if not clarification.

Frank - this SME arm has a detachable headshell, so I'll be able to more-easily experiment with different cartridges.

I've got my eye on a Goldring (forget the model), and I have a vintage Grado with low stylus mileage.

I once owned a Technics SL-1200, and fully appreciate the beauty & simplicity of direct drive. I went with the Thorens because our listening room has a suspended wood floor, and the Thorens suspension (as in the original AR turntable) is quite resistant to feedback and footfalls.

Kent - Don't call me Shirley!

I own a half-dozen versions of Kind Of Blue, including an early CD - which was famously transferred at the wrong speed, and you're right - this music is in my top 5.

[frankmarsi]

5-30-14, 5:51 EST

Hey ar_pro, ya see what happens when you go against the family's way of thinking?

Gee, we'll all come at you one at a time. You’re gonna have to face each of us, that’s what a family does.

Tell, me, is there a maggie site like this one? Will your new kind of friends allow to have all the good graces like you have here, in your home, with this nice roof over your head and with your family always feeling safe?

And what about bass? Has it crossed your mind that bass can be an issue?

What if the new speakers can’t go as loud or project as much bass?

Aren't you scared of the ghost of Eddie V. and Henry K. and Roy A.?

You better watch out Tom T. and Roy C. and others don’t come after you in a dark alley. None of us in this family care for deserters or turn-coats!

You know poppa and mamma will be hurt, especially if you become injured or hurt any way.

Wait till your father gets home, he's gonna hit the ceiling and hopefully not you.

Where are you going to go for the holidays huh? How are you going to be treated? Who's gonna tell you if your face is dirty or not? Are you going to be treated the way you’re used to here? You gonna have the same good food as you have here? Where you gonna go? Who’s gonna fold your underwear just the way you like them? Is the refrigerator going be full like it is here? Where you going to park your car?

I remember when I got divorced and went to my father to apologize for putting my whole family through a whirlwind roller coaster of a relationship.

You know what he said to me in his broken English/Italian?

He said: “Well-a my son, I told-a you, you were playing with da fire, you should-a never have married that show-girl!”

In retrospect he was correct, she was a ‘show-girl’ even if she denied the fact, but I had a great time and I was the envy of everyone I knew, she was a real piece of ass, a trophy wife, half my age. We enjoyed excellent bodily relations and she loved the same music I did, plus she enjoyed my stacked LSTs too.

I thought at the time, who could ask for more? But, she loved the spot-light more so and was more attracted to that than our strong efforts to build a happy home.

I’ve always been aware of maggies, I've checked out Maggie prices before, they're not so way out of line comparatively speaking. I’d love to hear them.

In fact just yesterday I was thinking about buying a couple of used ‘EMIT-K’ ribbon tweeters and experimenting. Even thought of the “Heil” air-core tweeters but, they’re too expensive.

I wasn't going to tell anyone in the family yet, well not until I had played around with them for a while. But, you came right out with it. That took some gorleone, some bull’s pride, some brass.

All I can say, ar_pro, or whatever your new name is: I wish you luck and happiness in your new relationship. The door will always be open for you, you have a home here, I’m just not so sure how this will play out in the long run.

In closing I’d like to say: Somebody give me a mike. There’s no need to worry about us, we, in this house will always reflect about our choice in speaker history. We are “AR” men!

(just kidding, just kidding) All the best for you!

fm

[DavidR]

Maybe he'll wake up and realize it was all a bad dream.

[ra.ra]

Pretty much like DavidR summed up (in fewer words than I'll ever manage), it is not at all uncommon for men of a certain irritable age to inexplicably stray far from their normal behavior in a desperate attempt to embrace their unique personal nirvana in advance of the grim-reaper's arrival. Our friend, ar_pro, is temporarily undergoing this very confusing and delusional adult moment, and he has inadvertently developed a laser-focused eye on the comely ewe in the next pasture. Our comrade has strayed from his devoted flock, and as a supportive community, we must tolerate his wayward hallucination, but then also help him through his call for help and his time of need, in order that he might get his life directed back towards his true and instinctual moral compass.

While there is ample reason to believe that Magneplanar has marketed some very exceptional products over the years, whenever I hear someone refer to this brand as "maggies", I cannot help from thinking about my very favorite childhood cartoon characters, those wise-crackin', cigar-smokin', crazy magpies, Heckle and Jeckle.

[teknofossil]

Any of you daring people want to try marrying a set of Carver ribbons (the 60" units from the Platinum system) to your AR woofer sections? I have a set of the ribbon units that I would like to sell since I don't have the room in our house (even though it is a substantially sized 1895 Victorian the many rooms are either too small or the wife unit says NO). I think the crossover Carver used is in the range of 100 hz or so, 2nd order slope. Probably have to build a baffle for the ribbons, probably in the range of 12" or more.

[DavidR]

A friend of mine has a pair of Carver Plats (aka The Ironing Boards). Too shrill for me and the bass isn't smooth down low.

[soundminded]

I wouldn't get rid of the AR9s just yet. There is always a novelty factor to new different audio equipment. Audiophiles are constantly looking for that holy grail they never seem to find. It isn't until some time goes by that the new product begins to show its limitations that were overlooked or undiscovered at first. Tell us in 6 months or a year if you still prefer the Maggies. One thing many audiophiles do is keep swapping equipment. There's also often a lot of seller's remorse. I have my own theory about line array and surface array speakers. Many that use very light weight moving elements such as Infinity IRS, electrostatics, and magneplanar speakers, ribbon speakers and the like claim their particular sound is due to very low distortion resulting from this low moving mass. My hunch is that it is really due to the large radiating surface area and the fact that some are dipoles generating diffuse reflected fields over a wide angle from the walls behind and to the sides of the speaker. To test my theory I'm one day going to build a large surface array speaker system using conventional dynamic drivers. If you miss AR9s bass, there's always Dayton RS1202 and RS1202K. These seem to be based on the AR9 woofer design employing two 12" side firing acoustic suspension woofers each with a built in amplifier. Building a pair from kits should cost less than about $2000 and take only a few hours. Enjoy your new speakers.

[ar_pro]

You guys are a riot, a regular riot!

So here's a contest based on reading comprehension, wherein the first member to write an effective interpretation that demonstrates an accurate understanding of posts 1, 3, and 7 wins my remaining stock of Solen & Bennic replacement AR-9 crossover capacitors & Erse 6 ohm upper-midrange power resistors (photo attached).

No time limit, multiple entries are OK, and the decision of the distinguished panel of judges (just me) will be final.

Come on boys, there's got to be someone who can figure this out - I'm rooting for you!

[DavidR]

Had you just heard audio gear that ALL came across like speakers you'd still have the 9s.

None of the speakers you listened to outperformed the 9's in ALL departments; some may have done better in the bass, mid or treble. You finally heard a speaker reproduce sounded like it was a LIVE performance and not artificial.

(and for my curiosity) Which speaker did you hear that had the better bass?

[JKent]

You guys are a riot, a regular riot! So here's a contest based on reading comprehension

Here's my entry:

Mr. & Mrs. Pro wanted a new TT/arm/cart so they went to audition some.

They tried to audition the TTs with equipment that was comparable to their own, which included AR-9s.

The speakers from well-known manufacturers all had their own merits but none were as satisfying overall as the 9s. and all sounded like speakers (good speakers, but speakers).

Then came the Maggies, which disappeared and revealed nothing but the original performance.

So they bought the Maggies and picked up a used Thorens and have been happy as hell rediscovering their music.

It's inexplicable. To their ears the 9s are terrific speakers but the Maggies go beyond that--lifting the veil, going outside the box--whatever. They can now marvel at the wonderful musical performances rather than the wonderful sound reproduction.

Mr. Pro is not proselytizing--just thought fellow AR fans would be interested to hear about his experience (and we are, judging by the number of comments).

Of course, YMMV.

[ar_pro]

Here's my entry:

Mr. & Mrs. Pro wanted a new TT/arm/cart so they went to audition some.

They tried to audition the TTs with equipment that was comparable to their own, which included AR-9s.

The speakers from well-known manufacturers all had their own merits but none were as satisfying overall as the 9s. and all sounded like speakers (good speakers, but speakers).

Then came the Maggies, which disappeared and revealed nothing but the original performance.

So they bought the Maggies and picked up a used Thorens and have been happy as hell rediscovering their music.

It's inexplicable. To their ears the 9s are terrific speakers but the Maggies go beyond that--lifting the veil, going outside the box--whatever. They can now marvel at the wonderful musical performances rather than the wonderful sound reproduction.

Mr. Pro is not proselytizing--just thought fellow AR fans would be interested to hear about his experience (and we are, judging by the number of comments).

Of course, YMMV.

My hero.

PM your address, Kent - you win the caps!

[soundminded]

On another blog site I post on, the only other one, a manufacturer of esoteric high end equipment has a couple of demo rooms in his factory to show potential customers and other interested people what he sells which are not speakers or turntables. About a year ago he revamped his main room, his best equipment. He sent his Maggies off to a new owner and replaced them with Infinity IRS version 5. He was happy as a clam even before he started the arduous task of repairing them. Then he heard another systems which I think had five Sony speakers and if he'd had the money the IRSs would have gone too. In this sport, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Problem is, for a lot of people what starts out as treasure can soon turn to trash. How many accounts of people have I heard of swapping out equipment over and over again. Seems they hardly get the new ones out of the boxes before they start looking to replace them. Magneplanar 3.7 has gotten some very flattering reviews. If your enjoyment of them lasts as long as it did for your AR9s maybe they'll be the last speakers you'll need. And then again.....Here's one review if this link works. There are 3 videos in it.

http://www.avshowrooms.com/Maggie_3.html

[JKent]

My hero.

PM your address, Kent - you win the caps!

Very generous but I think the fame and honor of winning is reward enough

Kent

[soundminded]

It's the end of an era. The torch is being passed.

[stan461]

On another blog site I post on, the only other one, a manufacturer of esoteric high end equipment has a couple of demo rooms in his factory to show potential customers and other interested people what he sells which are not speakers or turntables. About a year ago he revamped his main room, his best equipment. He sent his Maggies off to a new owner and replaced them with Infinity IRS version 5. He was happy as a clam even before he started the arduous task of repairing them. Then he heard another systems which I think had five Sony speakers and if he'd had the money the IRSs would have gone too. In this sport, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Problem is, for a lot of people what starts out as treasure can soon turn to trash. How many accounts of people have I heard of swapping out equipment over and over again. Seems they hardly get the new ones out of the boxes before they start looking to replace them. Magneplanar 3.7 has gotten some very flattering reviews. If your enjoyment of them lasts as long as it did for your AR9s maybe they'll be the last speakers you'll need. And then again.....Here's one review if this link works. There are 3 videos in it.

http://www.avshowrooms.com/Maggie_3.html

Thanks for the link.

From all I have read on the Magenepan 3.7(i) since this thread has been posted, these videos are a concise and accurate summary.

Actually, a must view for anyone interested in these speakers.

AR_PRO,

Did you just swap out the AR9's or did you change anything else in the chain?

And what components are in that chain? (preamp, amp)

Is the room acoustically treated?

Thank you for sharing your experience.

[soundminded]

I take all reviews of audio equipment with more than a grain of salt. More like a vast salt mine. It's hard to find a review that doesn't laud the product that's being reviewed. Atkinson admits he selects products for review that he likes and the guys he assigns them to, work for him so you're not likely to hear much disagreement. Every month you can read about the latest best amplifier, speaker, headphones, or whatever in the world...for that month. If it isn't the best then it's as least as good as anything twice the price. I give credit where it's due. The reviewers are very clever writing the same reviews in different words every month year in and year out, decade in and decade out. Just look at reviews of equipment 30, 40, 50 years old.

I use live classical music played on acoustic instruments as my reference. I hear a lot of it in my home and I've attended lots of concerts. While this equipment is enjoyable none of it sounds to me anything like live music. By current standards in this market these speakers are relatively cheap even if to most people $5000+ is a lot to pay. But even there when you start adding in the cost of the rest of the equipment that is recommended as sufficient to get these speakers to perform as expected the cost of such systems easily escalates into the $20,000 to $30,000 range and up before you know it. This review BTW as with many such reviews tells you in retrospect what was wrong with the same manufacturer's model it replaced. Why didn't they tell you that in their first review? Because if you'd known you might not have bought them. And therein lies the rub. Even if you believe these reviewers are adequate to evaluate this equipment despite the fact most, even all of them seem to have no special qualifications as listeners or otherwise, there's the haunting suspicions of conflict of interest. Personally, I don't think Consumer's Report will review this model. It's not something that is of direct interest to most of their readers. What will people do when the 3.8 comes out and we find out what the shortcomings of the 3.7 were we don't know about (besides lack of adequate deep bass.)

[ar_pro]

Stan - our system has been pretty much the same for awhile (McIntosh MA6900 preamp section, MC402 power amplifier) - we were pleased with the AR-9, having heard it with several iterations of amplification over the years; including biamplification, and LF equalization - we definitely weren't in the market for new speakers!

Our listening room is well-suited to acoustic music, with high angled ceilings, lots of wallspace, bookcases, a fireplace, and a pair of open entrances to the original (1910) part of our house.

It's naturally reverberant, but not echo-ey - we really lucked out in not having to add any sort of treatment beyond furnishings.

I'd not read any review of the 3.7, and was actually quite unfamiliar with the current Magnepan line until the day we encountered the 3.7i.

Having used some version of the AR-9 for two decades, I'm not what one would call "insecure" when it comes to living with my choices, and the move to the Magnepan 3.7i was purely experiential, and not philosophical.

Soundminded is right to be skeptical of reviews, with the best approach being to use them as a starting point, and not as a set of instructions.

That pair of Absolute Sound reviews was just to serve as an introduction to the speaker, and not as any sort of endorsement on my part.

[soundminded]

I hope and expect this will turn out to be a fine speaker Roy and his wife will enjoy for many years to come. IMO line arrays have inherent advantages over point sources and surface arrays have advantages over line arrays. Dipole speakers have advantages over monopole speakers. However, positioning and room acoustics are critical to obtaining the best performance. In their own way these speakers will require more experimentation with positioning and listener location than AR9 does. I'm not so sure other than that ribbon or membrane speakers really have advantages over conventional dynamic drivers. There certainly are disadvantages to them.

[stan461]

AR_PRO - Thanks for the response.

And thanks for sharing your experience.

It was fun reading this thread and then using google to read other peoples' take (reviews) on this product.

That is part of what makes this hobby great.

At least now I have some idea of what they are, and if the bug bites, a possible contender.

These days, information is plentiful and sometimes overwhelming but still a wonderful thing.

Weeding out the truth is challenging but IMHO - ignorance is not bliss.

Meanwhile, I'm still working on squeezing out as much fidelity as I can from my AR3a's and very happy doing so.

Chances are, I won't be laying down $5000 for the Magnepan 3.7i's but then again... never say never.