After a 12-year history, reaching a near-iconic standing, the Magneplanar 1.6 has been improved with value engineering. No costly tweaks of questionable sonic value. Magnepan is all about better ideas which give high-value sonic improvements that can be verified in blind-fold testing.
The 1.7 is a departure from Magnepan's 40-year history of using planar magnetic drivers for the bass or lower midrange. The use of quasi ribbon technology down into the lower midrange and bass will provide a new level of coherence.
What is a quasi-ribbon? The quasi ribbon driver is a deviation from the true ribbon design. A very thin film backing is used to hold the delicate ribbons in place. One of the advantages of quasi ribbon drivers is extremely wide frequency band width and high power handling. The result in the 1.7 is low distortion and seamless ribbon clarity--a sound so clear and effortless that is has changed the thinking of thousands of audiophiles about planar speakers.
The 1.7 also boasts a quasi ribbon super tweeter with a wider "sweet spot," and one step closer to the delicacy and detail of Magnepan's true ribbon design.
A new, modern styling with wrap-around aluminum trim on the 1.7 is also a departure from Magnepan's more conservative cosmetic styling. The standard wood trims of the 1.6 are available upon special order.
The total design concept for the Magneplanar 1.7 results in a speaker that measures exceptionally well by all the standard criteria, but more important, sounds even better.
A Tradition of Innovation and Advanced TechnologyHave you ever noticed that instruments projected from small boxes sitting on the floor sound like they are coming out of boxes on the floor? This problem can be partially corrected by placing the box speakers on tall speaker stands. However, the sound still seems to be coming out of a box, because that's precisely what it is doing.The patented Magneplanar principle eliminates these problems by a fundamentally different approach to sound propagation. The Magneplanar projects sound from top to bottom, giving the sound height as well as stereo width and depth. In the concert hall, instruments project in all directions. Instead of projecting sound out of a box, Magneplanars project in all directions, which closely duplicates the original performance.
With your eyes closed the Magneplanar will allow you to "see" the original performance suspended in space. The full height, width and depth of the concert hall can be heard.
Theoretically, loudspeakers should use massless drivers suspended in space with no box, magnet structure, or framework around the drivers. Most conventional box speakers are far from this ideal. The mass of the driver is high and the rear wave is contained within the box or magnet structure. While the frequency response can be smoothed out in a box speaker, the character of the sound is inevitably affected. The music sounds like it is coming out of a box-constricted and unnatural. The Magneplanar diaphragm comes closer to the ideal driver. The mass is low and the diaphragm is not contained. The sound is permitted to radiate freely into space. With the box removed, Magneplanars sound more like you are there.
The power from an ampilifer causes the conventional cone speaker to react as if it had received a sharp blow at the voice coil. Since the outer portions of the cone cannot respond instantly, the cone will flex. The resulting cone breakup gives music a "fuzzy", "blurred" quality. The Magneplanar eliminates cone breakup by driving the Magneplanar diaphragm over its entire area. The force from the amplifer is distributed over the entire diaphragm so that it all moves at the same time. Cone or diaphragm breakup is dramatically reduced and the integrity of the music is preserved.
The effect of mass on a loudspeaker can be illustrated by the comparison of a balloon and a beach ball. In the case of the balloon a nominal force such as a puff of wind will cause the balloon to accelerate quickly. When the force ceases, the balloon decelerates quickly. The same force will move the beach ball, however, the ball is slower to start and slower to stop. High mass is one of the main causes of sonic degraduation in conventional speakers. Magneplanars use ultra low mass components. For example, the Magneplanar ribbon element is so thin, that on edge, it is invisible to the naked eye. It is so light that when a piece of it is dropped from a height of 6 feet it takes and average of 5 seconds for it to reach the floor. Conventional speaker designs prohibit such low mass-the force from the driving amplifier would crush conventional speakers made of such light materials. Only by driving the transducer over its entire area can you use materials of such low mass.