I inherited a pair SMGa speakers from my uncle and the day after I got them hooked up one of them got super quiet then died. These are my first set of speakers I've ever owned and hopefully I can repair them using this video. Just hoping I don't screw up!
Great video. I'm on my 6th pair of Maggies. MG IIs from 1975, then a second pair (in a mirrored setup). Tympani 1Ds in 1977. SMGs for a few years. 1.7s in 2015 and 1.7is in September 2020 (1.7s were damaged, sent to Magnepan for repair, but I chose full upgrade to 1.7i for a super reasonable cost). I still have the first MGIIs from 1975. They sound amazingly good but one has a slight rattle in the high end. I'm tempted to do the repair after seeing your video. I also have the Tympani 1Ds which were used very little. However the left tweeter panel is out. So, I'm motivated to look for a fix. Guess I could send the one panel back to Magnepan, but maybe the repair is easy. A fully working set of 1Ds should be worth some bucks. Anyway, thanks for doing this video!
I am glad you found it useful! I am hoping magneplanar speakers get a more mainstream so the cost decreases. I would love for more people to experience just how amazing music and entertainment can be with high-quality sound.
Wow! Really nice job Brennen. I've been looking at a pair of these that need rebuilt but after watching your video I'm inclined not to get them. I don't want to spend that much time and effort.
@@BrennensBudgetBuilds those are the Olympics buddy, not the Cascades ;) I have to admit I stalked you a bit here… nothing nefarious I promise! I immediately recognized the Anhalt building out your window so I could tell that you’re in my hood. My G G Great uncle (and one of the first doctors in Seattle) built a mansion across the street to the east of you. Unfortunately it was torn down a few years ago. It’s a disgusting micro-apartment building now. Anyway, I’m in to audio as well, and I own a pair of electrostatic speakers (Martin Logan) which are similar in many ways to your Magnepans. We should chat!
Hello, I followed with interest the repair of your panel (tweeter) My question, can you give me details of the glues you use to fix the voice coil, and also, the wires used are aluminum or copper, and what sections do they make? Thanks for your precisions Greetings Daniel
Unfortunately after the project I through away all the left over materials without thinking. I didn't record the exact glue but it should be information you can get from the Magnepan office if you call and ask. I am sure they also have the wire information, if I recall correctly the bass wire was copper and the tweeter was aluminum.
wires are insulated aluminum. all guages for all models are online. some models as mg1b and mgllb share the same wire guage, mag tech support cant be beat! dont mess with anything but spec repair materials. painstaking but worth the effort 10 fold as a diy, when shivers go down your spine and your jaw drops (along with anything you may be holding in your hand) listening to your favorite reference tune. angus and julia stone"s "draw your swords" is beyond breathtaking! becks cover of "everybodys got to learn sometime"- unbelievable, he is there! set up is critical as are quality electronics. $$$ not necessary. bought my mg1b's for $100 in 2016 . i found speakercraft, niles, crown, rotel and bgw amps at goodwill all in perfect condition from $15 to $75. i use the 1/3 seating/speaker placement rule. i run l/r subs. after 6 years i still get chills listening to these, bayba! man, here we go after mindnite..i gotta get my maggie fix.
Nice video. I've replaced the high end wires on several Maggies. But yet to have the courage to replace the bass/mid wires. Just cleaned & re-glued them. have a pair of MG-IIIA's that I might do that in the near future.
Joppe Peelen . check out his articles on do it yourself audio considering upgrades on the magneplanar speakers. There are also other Magna planar forms which will guide you and how to upgrade your system and the crossover parts. if you like listening to high volumes, then make sure to use a high pass crossover for a cleaner sound. I think magnepan setup secret Vaio CD Hi-Fi guy is the one that has that video. Gary Ritchie of G & R research also has some advice on upgrading the crossover on these speakers and has a kit that will upgrade the crossover. If you're interested in that sort of thing. people have tried to use copper wire with this and yes you can but then you also have to have a car amplifier capable of driving the speaker at about .5 ohms and not have a problem. otherwise, use the kit that magnepan provides. If You Love acoustic music vocals and guitar nothing will get you closer to that experience that a pair of magnepan and that's just my personal opinion. for those of you with smaller rooms I really do suggest purchasing the set of magnepans that are directly from magnepan themselves which retails for around five hundred to $600. they are smaller and seemed to work better in the smaller rooms that most people have today and small apartments. for those of you that aren't that great at rebuilding things and spending a lot of time doing it like the factory did then this absolutely is the best option. Especially when you realize many of these older magnepans are having issues with the mylar being screwed up by the previous person who purchased them. if you're going to use packing tape at least use the thicker gauge packing tape sold by 3M Corporation and make sure to seal the edges of the packing tape with that glue otherwise it will come out later on in its lifetime sometimes as little as a year. most of the time when you're Maggie does not work it's because of the soldiering of the wires to the crossover. Remember the wires are made out of aluminum show you need to use the proper solder and the proper flux. otherwise you can make contact with the wire but for some reason you will not have electrical conductivity which seems strange but yes it does happen. in fact I ran into a number of those problems with the number of the speakers I have purchased and helped repair. *SOME TIPS* : Often by the time you repair these speakers, you will reach the realization that it was simply a much better idea to pick up the phone or get online call magnepan and order a pair of speakers in the mail to your home. the newer models actually have a bunch of upgrades that increase the Fidelity and performance of the panels. I believe you can also order custom socks or the actual cloth Grill used so they can even do a printing on them from what I heard but again your results May Vary. if you do exhibitions or expose. these are the perfect speakers to use as the cloth Grill can be printed with your own logo or branding. they also excel in open environments which is something that you don't see too often. The larger the space the better these things sound. you should use a subwoofer with these speakers. they don't have a problem reaching the lower register they just have a problem with reaching that lower register at the volumes you want to hear it at. LASTLY. if you think you've ever heard a good piano soundtrack or you've ever wanted to experience female vocals with a piano in the background absolutely done better than anything you have ever heard before ? this is the ONE affordable speaker and THE ONE COMPANY that can make it happen better than ANYONE in the world .. *PERIOD* this is one of the only speakers that (IN MY OPINION/Experience) has the ability to produce room filling, FORTISSIMO , distortion-free piano performances WITH ZERO AUDIBLE CRACKLE or Distortion of any kind being actually audible in the performance even at severely loud levels. NOTHING HAS EVER COME CLOSE. and the realism that you can get in a large room is pretty much in a category all to its own. if you want to see what I'm talking about ? set up just one speaker in the middle of the room and going to the next room and have the speaker just randomly play a track from someone's voice especially a female voice and that will tell you just how real and how Vivint the experiences with these speakers. it actually will fool you into thinking there is something and someone in that other room speaking. you have to do it with only one speaker hooked up because women and people of course only have one mouth and they usually don't have two of them unless they're twins. you can get any other kind of speaker that you want but for the price to Performance and even with the limitations there's hardly anything that can touch it on the market. if you're into visual effects and you like that sort of thing ... the speakers are visually clear and that means you can do some pretty interesting stuff with them with LEDs and love will meters so if that's your thing???? you're going to love getting a pair of old ones and rebuilding them like I did. EnjoyTheMusic. iMickey503
Thanks for the lengthy and well thought out comment! I will continue my research and perhaps do another full restoration and modification in the future.
Gluing all is simply silly. Where are the moving Parts? Just My opinion. Or did I miss something. I wanted to see the Litz wire strung tight between the MAGS NS Poles for the best Force as in a motor! But we also want this to be Linear as possible. Also the Right Hand Rule!
@Brennen's Budget Builds Hello I have a pair of MG 1.6 and the speaker when I am playing a song with a lot bass,the membrane creaks. Is there a tutorial how can I fix it and what glue to use? Thank you
So they're just for looks? I watched this video hoping to hear what is so great about these speakers. All I got from it is that they would suck during an earthquake, they look far too easy to topple over.
GREAT Video!!! I have a pair of SMG's that need repair but I'm trying to minimize my initial costs since I'm not sure if I'll be able to complete the repair. Can the wires be soldered/jumpered where they are open? Do you know if the wires you received from Magnaplanar are the same as wire used in speaker voice coils (ie enameled, solid copper)?
My understanding is once the wires corrode to the point of separating, it isn't in just a few isolated spots. It is usually the entire wire that is compromised. There won't be a consistent enough signal to evenly travel around the entire length. If it were me I would just take the sock off and have a look before jumping into anything. You can decide from there if your up for it.
I recently learned from a Magnepan employee that the way I did mine was not very efficient (see video description). Since I had limited tools I just did my best to eyeball it when tacking it down. If you have more time and resources than I did, then I would recommend looking up pictures of a Magnepan being made in their shop. They use a guitar bridge looking device to wrap the wire around at an evenly spaced intervals. I believe recreating one of these devices with a wooden frame and some carefully placed nails could be helpful. Again it all depends on the amount of tools and resources you have at your disposal. Hopefully that is helpful. Good luck!
Great respect from my side for the craftsmanship regarding the restoration of the old Magnepan!!! (Actually, however, a loudspeaker should not look as pathetic inside as these old Magnepan speakers, even after this long time This level of corrision is truly frightening......... :-( :-(. ) I had exactly this model new in the late seventies... but only for a short time, because from my point of view it is a really bad loudspeaker sonically. All the more astonishing that Magnepan loudspeakers have some fans who restore these old, blackened loudspeakers at great expense.... it can't really be the sound, probably more the appearance or the dispersion behaviour.... my opinion is that at least this model was and is full of sound deficiencies. A painstaking restoration will not be able to change that... from the lack of low bass and level stability to the lack of transparency in the mid and high frequencies.... this is not a speaker for demanding music reproduction that can do justice to all genres... that's why I was glad when I quickly got rid of it... but nevertheless, once again, great praise for the craftsmanship in the restoration.
I have one tore down due to delamination, its been sitting for 3 weeks, and cant decide if it's worth the time and effort, or to buy a new set... was there a huge noticeable difference??
1) 1:45 shows an electrostatic speaker, not magneplanar. 2) Not omni directional. Line source dipole figure 8 pattern horizontal dispersion, very very narrow vertical dispersion at higher frequencies. Nice job rebuilding the speakers.
I would say $850 is a good ballpark for unrestored versions of this model in working condition. I can't image selling mine for less than $1400 after all the labor that went into it.
Hey Brennen, what's the best way to reach you and get a reply? I bought some Switch parts and I found a part that I'm not sure where it fits, so I could use some help.
@@shawnkratochvil7211 well I’ve read a lot you should use 4ohms not sure why I went and bought a used NAD and to be honest can’t tell a huge difference from my 8 ohm amp
I was fortunate enough to have very well behaved cats haha. I should have put a disclaimer that the panel is not protected on the backside. One curious cat could make for a bad day.
