Foreword
For this year, Magnepan updated their 3.7 model to 3.7i. This caused some wondering
amongst planar lovers. Why so soon after launching 3.7 and what i-model actually
is? The changes are said to be listening based and technically subtle. The rest
is a secret. In Finland, MG-3.7i was officially demoed first time in Tampere
Hifi & High-End event. But, just a little after that, the speakers were
presented at HifiGuru open doors in much more favorable circumstances. This
short writing is from this visit.
I have launched several writings about carefully constructed Magneplanar-based setups and have always liked the sonic world of them. In certain features, MG-20.7 is still one of my reference speakers. MG-3.7 comes close to it in many manners, but still one will have more with the flagship. Instead of going very deep in my analysis, I will concentrate on finding out the differences of i-model.
Setup
| BelCanto CD2- VBS-1 CD-transport |
| Devialet 400 amplification, including DAC and RIAA |
| Magneplanar 3.7i loudspeakers |
| Transparent Reference AES-EBU digital cable |
| Transparent Music Wave Super MM2 speaker cables |
| Transparent Power Isolator Reference power filter |
| Acapella Fondato Silenzio base for Devialets |
Listening
A little after the arrival, I managed to stay plenty of time at the sweet spot.
Guru had carefully placed the speakers and the listening chair and I had nothing
to complain on this. The listening results reminded a lot of those of the previous
visits, in which MG-3.7, 20.1 and 20.7 models were demoed. That is to say --
excellently. With its front end, MG-3.7i delivered music surprisingly effortlessly
and harmonically correctly. So, Magneplanar lovers can certainly be relaxed
with the new i-model. The traditional Maggie goodies still exist, naturally.
Guru played a wide variety of music, covering all main genres. The music flowed
continuously in a fascinating and credible way. Instruments sounded natural
and there was great coherency all through the audio bandwidth. Treble shined,
midrange made me impressed and there was also adequate bass. So, there were
no real surprises.
I tried to restore my memorials of the 3.7 performance, for a comparison, but
I was in a quite hopeless situation. I just could not resolve surely if there
were improvements at all. I had a couple of suspects that there might be slightly
better articulation (attack-release faithfulness) in certain parts of music
samples, but naturally could not verify that. Finding a reliable answer to this,
needs a direct A/B comparison or better ears and memory than mine. Anyway, the
sound was very enjoyable and very well in balance.
Conclusion
I did not expect big differences and there surely was not them. The improvements
must be more or less developmental and concern only certain sonic features.
If you already have 3.7, you can well keep them without any strain. But you
can also make an upgrade and have the promised tiny improvements into the sound.
For the first time in their history, Magnepan offers upgrading at the factory
for a $500, and this is not much in the area of high-end. One thing is even
more important than thinking about upgrading. The owners of Maggies should do
burn-in process well enough. The Maggies, especially 3.7i, sound light and restricted
at first, but after plenty of use, dynamic contrasts begin to open. Caring this
rewards!