Magnepan 20.1

[Gordon Gray]

Timm,

I believe there is general recognition that the M20 is an outstanding speaker when set up properly and fed by the appropriate electronics. I also agree with you that it is a tribute to the design of 20 that they are so capable of revealing all things downstream.

However, the $236K price tag for the overall system seems more than a bit disproportional to the cost of the speaker itself. But hell, what do I know.

CC means conspicuous consumption although many of my friends would find me guilty of that very same thing.

Gordon

 

[Rich]

The $236k number has got to be a typo. If you add up the numbers for his assumed extra cost of running the maggies, you only come to $33k. Where does the extra $200k come from?

I agree with Jeff. You don't have to bi-amp the Maggies to make them sing, you just have to hook them to a capable amp, of which there are many to choose from. And you don't have to spend a quarter of the cost of the speakers on your IC cord either.

 

[tonepub]

Hi Timm,

Someone else wrote this up and posted it on Audiogon. However, I can take the credit for sniffing it out. Since there are no Audiogon links allowed, I just copied and pasted.

I wish all the magazines were that thorough in their compare / contrasts, but I think they are afraid of ****ing off the companies who pay for ads or may advertise in the future.

I really don't think it's that big of a deal with the compare/contrast, it's more of a time/availability thing.

Both the CLX and the 20.1 are outstanding speakers, but they both have different requirements to make them perform at their best. Not every reviewer has the access to the gear and has enough room to make comparisons like that. And almost any manufacturer isn't going to send you a 12K pair of speakers, so you can compare them to another mfrs product.

I just happened to be very lucky that my friend that has the 20.1's has a room that is fairly similar to mine and has an ACT2 and Premier 350 which I'm very familiar with to make the comparison.

Much like one person might really prefer an Audi S6 to a BMW M5 (and vice versa for the other), that's the way I see the 20.1/CLX thing. There are a lot of variables in the setup, and both can be optimized to achieve great results, yet each has it's own distinct flavor.

That's why both companies continue to produce each to happy customers.

 

[David Matz]

Jeff, fair enough. (By the way, my comments are more at ABS and Stereophile rather than at your magazine.) Are you saying that Fremer who owns the Maxx3 and just reviewed the new Vanderstine in his home could not throw in a single compare contrast between the 2? Pathetic!

Or Valin, Harley, etc., who proclaim the "BEST" every month could not arrange the amps to circulate among the editors or put a few speakers in the same place for a/b comparisons? Maybe they should try harder because I think that's what the readers are looking for. The car mags seem to do that and that M3 vs. Audi RS vs. Mercedes AMG section is the first one I flip to.

 

[tonepub]

Well, I can't really comment on that, but I will say, that's why we always try to test a set of speakers with at least 5 or 6 different amplifiers, and amplifiers with about the same amount of speakers.

As often as we can, we get at least one of the other staff members to try the gear in their home/system to get a second opinion as well.

While we never write terribly negative reviews, per se, we do try and find where the rocks in the road are and potential positive/negative system synergy issues to make it easier for you, the purchaser a little bit easier!