A Maggie Face Plants

When I was purchasing the LRS, I was fearful that bull in china shop Rocky would knock one over causing the diaphragm to rupture. Well, the right one has face panted twice with no ill effects.

Rocky has also baptized the right one twice. The grill cloth proved resistant to staining and cleaned up using a microfiber cloth moistened with Skout’s Honor dog urine cleaner.

After the break, read my observations about placing Maggies.

Placement

The featured image shows my first attempt at placement. This position worked well for the dogs. They had plenty of room to navigate around them. The sound was OK.

If you move the speakers back out of the way positioning them at the front face of the audio rack, the sound becomes very honky in the bass. The rear wave reflection is incorrectly phased with the front wave causing dramatic reinforcement of notes where constructive superposition occurs. Reinforcement proved more noticeable than destructive interference at other frequencies.

If the image is fuzzy, check that both speakers are equidistant from the listening position. Move until they are.

Room tuning

Believe Magnepan when they tell you that the speakers need to be 2 meters from rear reflecting surfaces. I have not done much room tuning other than placement.

Front wall absorption would probably not help the speakers are designed to have a reflective surface to their backs. If the speaker sounds peaky at C-4 (middle C) and below, try moving the speakers further away from the wall.

If the stereo image sound diffuse, check that both speakers are the same radial distance from the listening position.

If the sound is muddy, place absorption or diffusion behind the listening position. This can be furniture, shelves with books of random width (don’t stand them all at attention or you’ll loose the phase shifted reflections).

Also treat the first reflection point with absorption or diffusion. Locate the first reflection region by having a helper move a hand mirror held parallel to the wall and at eye level along the wall until the speaker front appears in the mirror. Treat in and around this location at ear level.