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Subwoofer(s) not required......

Posted by TwoTurntables (A) on January 5, 2019 at 16:09:59

So I have been listening to Magnepans basically all my life. 15 years ago I was running MGIIa's and I added VMPS subwoofers(May Brian rest in peace) to the bottom end. The subwoofers sounded great, but I never felt it blended well with the planars... so I sold the subwoofers a few years later. I then experimented with the planars to find that bottom end I desired. I have always read this forum and I recall some of you pro subwoofer with planar, and some of you against subwoofer with planar....So I wanted to believe that a subwoofer isn't necessary to get great bottom end with a set of Magnepans(model dependent of course). The year was 2010 and I had scored a set of 3.6s and wow I loved them right off the bat. Bass was definitely better than my MGIIa's(everything was better but I am focusing on the bottom end for this thread). A couple of years later my wife and I were having plans drawn up for our new house we were about to build. Of course I had to include a dedicated 2ch music room in the plans. Wife kept wanting HT in the same room, but I had one mission with this room and it was to see what my 3.6's were capable of so it stayed 2ch. So the house was completed in 2014. I experimented with the room for a few years and by 2018 I felt like I had gotten to where I wanted to be with these 3.6s. The room is 14.25 wide x 23.5 long with just shy of 9' ceilings, speakers are around 4' off front wall. Strictly dedicated vinyl room. All equipment is outside of the room except speakers, room treatment and a listening chair. I did this so I wouldn't hear any noise from TT stylus and the fans on the amps, the room is dead quiet(Acoustically insulted with a sealed door). GIK recommended the room treatment setup so I ran with it. I added Grants Myestands. Lastly I had a set of SS mono blocks built in 2018(Thank you Kim and Mike Bettinger)(345 watts into 4ohms each side with Jfett front ends). I run a MC stylus, and as I mentioned I am strictly analog with this. Frankly I don't usually allow cell phones in the room :)... I noticed the biggest change when I went from a single amp to mono blocks(More power the better). Also supporting the power of the Mono blocks I went with Kimber 12tc speaker cables. We did a blind test with several sets of nice cables and the 12tc came out on top every time.
I recall unboxing the mono blocks on Fathers day.. My Dad(I can thank him for the Maggie influence) was over and after we hooked them up, the first record we threw on was Steely Dan Aja and we both knew right away the speakers were dialed in and the bottom end was low and full like we had never heard before with planers. I think the dedicated room treated correctly, the mye stands and ultimately the mono blocks showed me their(3.6s) capabilities(I have done other tweaks but these were the major ones). Obviously this was a long process, as we all know it can be with these speakers.... I have added pics, since a thread is usually more interesting with some visuals as well. Any feedback good or bad is appreciated. Thank you very much for reading.

My Pronouns are: Conservative, Patriot and Two Turntables

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