Magnepan MMG or MG12 and 150 watt NAD integrated amplifier based system from $3,449
The MMG will perform well on all but the heaviest [badly/falsely recorded]rock, or electronic based music styles.Music styles including jazz, rock, pop, blues, orchestral, country, gospel, soul will surely engage you with a natural presentation. The NAD 150 watt C375BEE Integrated Amplifier at $1,699 will bring you most of the baby Maggies best attributes. NAD typically don't have that 'thin' or 'bright' sound so common of a lot of the highly recognisable brands products on offer. They exhibit a 'warmer' 'richer' sound that allows longer, non-fatiguing listening sessions. Add an entry model NAD C515BEE CD Player at $399 to produce a cost effective long term solution for you to enjoy. The total investment is $3,297. BONUS: Add an Audioquest Sidewinder 1.5m Interconnect and a 3m pair of Rocket 33 Speaker cables to produce a cost effective solution for you to enjoy your music and movies on. The Audioquest cables are valued at $488 but yours for $152 to complete your synergistic system for a total of $3,449. Upgrade the supplied Magnepan fuses to the Audio Tuning models for $99.90. Add a pair of speaker stands for $295, available by special order, they will improve every aspect of your Maggies considerable musical ability. Also, should your budget allow, then you should add a quality Digital to Analogue Converter [DAC] the Stello Signature from April Music at $1,298 is a standout value, this way you will upgrade your CD sound and be able to connect all your digital sources to your system so that everything [PC/I-Pod/DVD/STB/TV/Music Server] will benefit from it's superior digital to analogue convertion. And if you want even more music then step upto the Magnepan MG12 for an additional $800. Review: The Magneplanar MG12/QR - "Losing (and Finding) My Religion" - by Wayne Garcia (Fi) [This is an exerpt, the fill reiview is available in the 'Reviews' section elsewhere on our site] 'And on it goes. If you're a rock fan you'll love the gunslinger-fast interplay of electric guitars and Charlie Watts' percussive back beats at the opening of the Stones' "Start Me Up," from Tattoo You [Rolling Stones Records], or the way these speakers will show you just how exaggerated the multimono "stereo" mix of Rubber Soul [EMIJ is, and how the acoustic guitars on "Norwegian Wood" sound, well, more like acoustic guitars, and more like men playing acoustic guitars as their plastic picks zing across vibrating steel strings stretched over a wooden body. Planar speakers move air in a way that is fundamentally different from their point source counterparts. This is one of the reasons that instruments and voices sound so natural over them-it's the volume of air that changes, not the size of the instruments. With that in mind, it's hard to imagine large orchestral works being better served than they are by Magnepans, so lifelike and full-scale is the soundstage (which in my room was akin to first-tier, not orchestra, seating) and so effortless their ability to swing to full orchestral climaxes.
No sound is ideal for every listener. Some will prefer the more up-front presentation dynamic speakers provide, or a punchier bass or zingier highs. That's cool. But show me a speaker that allows the entire frequency range, all instrumental tone colors, and the acoustic space itself to be presented whole; show me a speaker which can open up a soundstage and place everything from Dylan's harmonica to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra within it in a way that-if you close your eyes-is just that much closer to what we hear in life; and show me a speaker that can offer this much value and long-term listenability, and I'll show you a speaker that's just right for me'. NOTE: The NAD C375 is also capable of operating as a pre-amplifier should you want to upgrade to larger Maggies and want add a matching 150 watt power amplifier to passively bi-amplify your new speakers...say the MG3.6QR. |
