Magnepan MMG - Manual (Page 5)

4. OPTIONAL TWEETER ATTENUATION: There are several reasons for possibly needing to attenuate the tweeters in
your MMGs:
1. Recordings typically in the “pop” or “rock” vein often exhibit a pronounced rise in the treble region.
2. The Magneplanar Quasi ribbon tweeter is very efficient in it’s total energy dispersion. If the surrounding walls
are exceptionally reflective, the overall perceived acoustical balance can be tipped toward a “hot” high end.
3. Put A and B together and it can be unbearable.
Attenuation is accomplished by placing a resistor in the attenuation position on the connection plate (see Figure 1 on
next page). Provided with your speakers are 1 and 2 ohm resistors for this purpose. These resistors will provide 1 to
4dBof attenuation.
If you continue to have a brightness problem you should consider deadening your room (see below) or using
different electronics. Also try different interconnects and speaker cables.
5. ROOM ACOUSTICS: A room that is overly “bright” or “alive” will usually give thesound a “blurred” or “confused”
effect. It can also contribute to the brightnessproblem mentioned above. On the other hand an overly “dead” room
usuallyrobs the sound of the aliveness and inner detail that can make you “think you arethere.”
You can determine which type of room you have by doing what acousticalengineers do when they are without their
test equipment--they walk around aroom while making an occasional loud clap with their hands. If you do this
atdifferent locations in your room and listen to the sound that bounces back at youfrom the room boundaries, you can
get a pretty good idea of what your room islike. If you hear a tailing “zing” after the loud clap, you can be quite
certain youhave a “bright” room and you may need to consider some type of wall treatment.
The worst offenders in a “bright” room are bare glass windows and doors, andhard paneling. This is particularly true
if two opposite walls are parallel andmade of these materials. You can experiment by opening and closing drapes
orhanging a blanket over these areas. There are commercial materials availablethat your dealer can help you with.
One word of caution--don’t go overboard. Ifyou hear only a dull “thud” after the hand clap, you probably have a
“dead” room.About the only thing you can do, short of major construction, is to try leavingdrapes open or removing
absorptive materials.
6. MARK YOUR POSITION: Now that you have spent time finding the “right”position for you and your speakers, you
don’t want to lose it. A small tack orinconspicuous piece of yarn can be used to mark the spot(s). This will allow
youto move the speaker back against a wall for casual listening and facilitate quicklyfinding that “right” spot for
more serious listening.