MAGNEPAN TYMPANI 4A - FACTORY REBUILD... BREAKING THE RULES !!

#magnepan #audiophile #hifi
Crazy sound from these panels. All in only $10K.
ridiculous performance at a real world price.
I prefer sonic over the look every time.
We had a great time here ! Thanks Aaron !!
Maybe I can drive the 427 Cobra next visit !! ;-) 😉

[@dragocelander6671]

I love it! I used to work at a high-end audio boutique called Ecologic Ear in Des Moines back in the mid-70’s. They were the regional ARC dealer and carried the Magneplanar Tympani line. Incredibly natural sounding panels.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

For sure !

[@kenmcglown6642]

Nice work, Mikey!!! I absolutely love these speakers and all Magnepan speakers in general.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Thanks Ken !

[@NickP333]

Damn, dude…those are fantastic sounding, but holy sh*t, that guitar collection is insane! That goldtop with the humbuckers is what one of my Les Pauls is. Love the one with P-90’s. Amazing sounding pickup. Thanks, Mikey!

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

I thought you'd like that !

[@TheRealAudioDidact]

Say what you will about Mikey, he loves his Hifi! I’m so glad we get to come along for the adventure.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Yeah Buddy !!

[@wilbertiii]

Dude, I can't wait till you visit and listen to my rig!

[@henni1964]

Amazing. I recently started to enjoy my vintage MG 1.4's, having sewed new socks (in french blue) for them. They are so much more musical than my former KEF LS50 Meta, really no comparison.

[@justlovelyaintit]

Would love to hear a set of these.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

They are pretty cool. I think you can pick him up relatively reasonable in price.

[@MarkJohnson-zf7jj]

Those are the speakers I want for my tiny one bedroom apartment!!!

[@TheRealAudioDidact]

Check your ceiling height to know if you have the clearance ;)

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

For sure !! Wall of sound !!

[@freeradical6390]

My kinda listening room! Nice work! Props!

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Thanks FR !

[@love2fly59]

Awesome Mikey! All the best, Martin P.S. Love my .7s & 1.7i, would really love it if you could offer your Maggie upgrades here in Europe!

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

I do !

[@aaronscott6642]

hello to all...big thanks to O C D mike he"s like a brother he loves cars, guitars and STEREO's can't ask for more then that!!!! his wife Jo is super nice and has a great ear as well I just want to give a big thanks to Mick and Bill from Magnepan for their hard work and putting up with my phone calls during the rebuild of the Tympani 4a's, I was on the fence as to send them back or just do it myself but it was the best hi-fi decision i ever made if anyone out there has a pair of 4a's please box them up and send them to Mick and Bill you won't be disappointed.... many thanks Aaron

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Thanks Aaron... Cant wait to drive the Cobra next visit !! ;-)

[@bkurz4284]

This was a fun project to do. It’s not often that I get “carte blanche” when I work on these. Thanks Aaron for that opportunity and for the gift card!

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Great work, Bill ! You ARE the MAN !!!

[@bkurz4284]

Thanks Mikey!

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

@@bkurz4284 U bet, Brother !!

[@fabieneldridge3414]

Use to have a fender amp just like that, wish I’d kept it. Those speakers are producing alot of bass ! Very nice !

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Agreed!

[@andredevries4987]

Hi mike. That system sounds killer. Great video. Gr André de vries.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Hey, thanks!

[@audiostanton]

I have been telling you for years Mikey....you thought I was exaggerating didn't you. I told you 3 years ago Mike, now you know

[@lawrencemassey7190]

I had them for years. Nothing like them

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Great stuff !

[@hifi2169]

Mike, I realize you didn’t do a A B comparison, but in your opinion How did those Mark Levinson amplifiers Compare to Jeff Rowland?

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

I'd say they were a little dark if anything. Rowland has a touch better presence if I were to speculate.

[@timfugmann8935]

Coolness. I sold him those ML amps.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Awesome !! He's a great guy !!

[@roberthart9886]

My long deceased friend, Steve Zipser, who I met in the late 70s when he worked at Sound components in Coral Gables, FL had multi-panel (4 I think) maggies in a proper sized room for them. Other worldly

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

For real...

[@Zenk61]

The 4 panel per side Tympani was the T-3a and T-3b. Very rare today.

[@djdj500dr]

Damn

[@rickyblair8802]

Awesome

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

THX !

[@martybousum1010]

You got the TOUCH!

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Thx Marty !

[@carltoncotter2614]

With respect and not knowing how the music was recorded, this demo doesn't even approach what T-IVa's can achieve. And not just in terms of bass and dynamics, but spooky action 3D imaging like I have never heard before in my life. It's like the most palpable and uncanny imaging you have ever heard from mini monitors on stands, but truly life size. Also expansive depth and width, whether orchestral or atmospheric recordings from Wagner to Pink Floyd. Having owned several pairs of Magneplanars since I was a kid, T-IVas for 20 years, electrostatics, Apogee ribbons, ATC monitors, Sonus Faber etc - there is nothing that even comes close. There is a catch however which is why most of them languish on the used market for nothing. They usually need a VERY big room and they need to be way out into a big room and ideally, several feet away from both the rear (front) and the side walls. I have had mine in two rooms - one 17 by 22 and another was a gilded age music room with round corners, about 28 x 28 where both rooms had 10 to 12 foot ceilings. But neither of them was really quite big enough. After that inches if not centimeters of dialing them in will make critical and significant differences. They are enormous and heavier than they look, which makes them tedious to move and to dial in the position. Stands such as myesounds make a big difference and are not cheap while intentionally making them even heavier. Further to expansive imaging, they can work best (counterintuively) along the long wall of a rectangular room. This demands further enormity to the room in order to best position the speakers and your listening chair while firing across the short wall. And as you can read about on planar asylum, many long time Magneplanar fans will tell you they need tubes on the mids and the highs, and even better if biamped and then actively crossed over to monstrously powerful solid state monoblocks for the bass panels. There, the price can easily shoot up to six figures. But then, yes, you will most certainly have one of the best systems around and an iconic classic speaker that deserves to be on any short list of best speakers in the history of audio.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Preaching to the Choir my friend !!

[@rvaillant]

Heard the Tympany's back in the 80s. We played the helicopter part of Pink Floyd the Wall. Impact was awesome. It did suffer from the Maggy veil of that generation. I am wondering if these rebuilds have the tweeter and mid from the 3.7s.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Yes, its upgraded totally... a full rebuild up to current spec.

[@rvaillant]

@@OCDHIFiGuy Thanks, but it would be new drivers as in the 3.7s, correct? Because if it's new old drivers then they would be veiled.

[@fyrebolt]

​@@rvaillantthe tweeter can be upgraded to match the one in their 20.7 and 30.7 for a vary reasonable value. Just need to Drexel out some of the wood frame and remove a capacitor from the crossover

[@vinoheart]

WOW

[@hitechburg]

I have a MoFi turntable in that beautiful FENDER tricolor.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Cool !

[@jameshunt9870]

MAGNEPAN LRS+ are the entry level speakers from Magnepan but are getting amazing reviews. You love planar speakers, would love hear what you think of them!

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

I love them. I own a pair !

[@jameshunt9870]

@@OCDHIFiGuy Would love to know how you have them setup. Which amps are your favorite for driving them, what frequency do your subs take over?

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

@@jameshunt9870 a video is coming... ;-)

[@jameshunt9870]

@@OCDHIFiGuy WOW! GREAT. Are the LRS+ as special as some reviewers are saying?

[@brianlewis5042]

Nice system. I have been eyeing the HIFi Rose streamer. What are your thoughts? KZbin sucks for audio because of the compression. I can only image how this system sounds. It’s nice to see that companies like Magnepan takes in older speakers and upgrade them.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

In this Rig, the HFR is the bottleneck or weak spot. I don't want a streamer with a DAC added.. If anything I want a DAC with a streamer added. Still sounded great however !!

[@GA-pc2qd]

C'est bien.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Yes!

[@michaelgarnett832]

Did they change physical proportions of the tymp during rebuild - thought three panels each - slightly wider slightly shorter? I heard them in 1979 at lyric hifi w janis subs - with all Levinson class A w reel to reel Still remember the sound

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Think the dimms are same... but all upgraded to current spec and materials

[@CriticalTechReviews]

Hey, I just got some Tympani III. Is it possible to have them upgraded the way these were? How much did Magnepan charge to do (whatever they did) to these IV?

[@fyrebolt]

Magnepan offers support on all their models. Assuming the mylar is free of tears you are good to upgrade or rebuild them. Shipping to and from along with labor can be many times the cost of what you picked them up for. I'd suggest getting a kit to rebuild the parts you need if you have time. That's the tracing, sock, and possibly the crossover. Not sure about 3, but the 4a gives option to upgrade tweeter to what's in their 20.7 and 30.7 for a cheap cost. The tweeter upgrade would need to pull a capacitor out of the crossover, but result should be glorious. I've hung up this project due to my current smaller room dimension

[@bobuijttewaal6785]

Hi Mike , Great content ❤️what do you think of the sound of the hifi Rosé 150 ?

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Can't tell. Would have had to swap it out.

[@fullranger3435]

Ok, you might say I'm just a prick (and then I'd argue that I'm just an imaging freak) but what I notice from the go is that the sticks on the drums/hats sound disproportionate. Like two large hands hitting two large sticks (larger than life would be another, more welcome description). They sound nice, no disagreement here, but when I hear something like this, I turn skeptical about how the system would present/picture a large scale orchestra. Might be the recording per se, might be your recording, might be the room/setting AND might also be an innate inability of tall line sources to image sharply as a point source does.

[@Bill.K]

I still hear that 'plasticky' overall sound quality that the older Magnepans had. 🤔

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Gotta be the youtube Compression then. I was there and it was great. What's your speaker of choice ?

[@Bill.K]

@@OCDHIFiGuy I like new Maggies like the 3.7i given enough room, but currently running the new Triangle Magellan Cello 40th Anniversary edition speakers from France.

[@joncan2348]

How much to have these rebuilt by Magnepan?

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

$6K I believe..

[@brentcollins9727]

Is that a C6R and C5R Corvette under the amps?

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Yes, hes a Vette builder..

[@SpirallingOut]

Man I wish you could run Maggies off of 3wpc tubes, but they ain't horns. Oh well.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Wouldn't that be the dream speaker ? Lol

[@tomlathrop4094]

I have Tympani IVas and would like to do the same. How much did it cost? how are the bass panels placed behind the mid/tweet?

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

$7K I believe.... just set behind. Every room is different...

[@tomlathrop4094]

@@OCDHIFiGuy thanks so much and just to let you know you are far more credible than Jay at Jay's Audio Lab

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

@@tomlathrop4094 thanks Tom, he's got his own strengths, I've got others ... ;-) 🍻 cheers!

[@joppepeelen]

150K ? hmm i sold my renuild 1D short then for 650 :)

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Who said 150K ?

[@MegaPete]

Hey Mikey your bro Pete

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Hey Pete !

[@audiovalhalla]

Way too much sizzle in the highs.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

Not in the room... must be your playback device

[@audiovalhalla]

@@OCDHIFiGuy more like what your recording it on. Had to be there I guess.

[@andrewoswald9114]

Yeah, this is razor sharp. My guess is that perhaps something in the room affected the range of the recording.

[@OCDHIFiGuy]

@@andrewoswald9114 Something has happened as it was not painful there in the room. I am sensitive to glare or any top end push..