Magnat speakers - anyone have any experience?

alx

alx

alx

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I've seen some Magnat speakers on Amazon (German brand), and was wondering if anyone had any experience of them? The limited information I can find seems positive but it appears they're not that well known in the UK.

I was specifically looking at the Magnat Monitor Supreme 1000 floorstanders (linky) and the Magnat Monitor Supreme Centre 250 (linky).

I'm possibly looking at replacing the front and centre speakers of my Onkyo HT-S5305B system, and for the price these speakers seem pretty decent but always good to hear other opinions :).
 
They are not well known because they are cheap and here in the UK, we have a lot of good speaker manufacturers. Floorstanding speakers for £100 are not going to be good. They may have favourable reviews, but I'd say those people have no idea what a decent speaker sounds like. As long as they make noise, that's good enough for some.

Expecting such cheap speakers to be good, would be like expecting a £30 smartphone to handle Android really well. For such cheap money, it's not going to happen. When you are talking about floorstanding speakers with multiple woofers, the cabinet needs to be solid. That is key, and isn't possible with such a small amount of money to work with. Floorstanding speakers aren't what you'd call 'good' until you get to around the £300 mark.

If you have £100 spend on the front speakers, you are going to be far better off by getting bookshelf/standmount speakers. £100 will buy some very good budget ones, that are properly made to fit the budget. Have a look on SuperFi, they have a decent choice of speakers around the £100 mark. Wharfedale 9.1 and Mission MX1 are excellent speakers for the money.
 
I don't pretend to know anything about speakers but as you are using price, at least partially as a basis, I thought it was worth mentioning these are £100 per speaker not per pair.
 
My mistake. At £200 for a pair they would certainly sound better than if they were £100 for a pair, but it's still too cheap really, especially when you consider how many woofers are in each cabinet. Mission MX3 for an extra £50, would be a far better buy.

A decent branded pair of floorstanding speakers with three woofers in each, are probably going to cost around £400-£500 minimum.
 
Thanks for the advice. It's what I suspected but was hoping they were maybe a bit of a bargain

I'm basically thinking about upgrading the 2 front and centre speakers from my Onkyo HT-S5305 (receiver is the HT-R538).

I don't really want to spend huge amounts - I'm not a massive audiophile but I feel the standard speakers that came with the system could do with an upgrade.

The Mission MX3s look decent, tempted by them and the Mission MXC1 centre - any thoughts?
 
I think they will be a good choice. One of the key things, when it comes to 5.1, is matching the centre speakers to the fronts. As the MX range is also designed for 5.1, there is the C1 centre available.

The Wharfedale 9.1, was a poor suggestion really. Great budget hi-fi speakers, but not the best choice for a 5.1 system, due to the lack of centre available.
 
I ordered a set of the Mission MX3 a few weeks ago. They sent me the wrong colour so I sent them back. Quite lucky really as it gave me a good reason to send them back.

For the cash they are very good speakers. The bass in particular is impressive. Deep but still nice and snappy. I just found them a touch to bright with some material. But there again my amp is very detailed, so it just wasnt a good match for them.

Do they have to be floor standers?

Its just a recently demo'd quite a few speakers in that price range the other week. In that budget, I found the Dali Zensor 1s were head and shoulders above anything else I listened to. They sounded better then quite a few speakers costing a fair bit more.

There also a matching centre, the Dali Zensor Vokal Centre Speaker. Superfi have 1 left on special offer at the moment reduced to £149.

Granted you would get some stands, but they dont have to cost that much. The above combo is where my money would go if I was buying new.
 
kidloco said:
I ordered a set of the Mission MX3 a few weeks ago. They sent me the wrong colour so I sent them back. Quite lucky really as it gave me a good reason to send them back.

For the cash they are very good speakers. The bass in particular is impressive. Deep but still nice and snappy. I just found them a touch to bright with some material. But there again my amp is very detailed, so it just wasnt a good match for them.

Do they have to be floor standers?

Its just a recently demo'd quite a few speakers in that price range the other week. In that budget, I found the Dali Zensor 1s were head and shoulders above anything else I listened to. They sounded better then quite a few speakers costing a fair bit more.

There also a matching centre, the Dali Zensor Vokal Centre Speaker. Superfi have 1 left on special offer at the moment reduced to £149.

Granted you would get some stands, but they dont have to cost that much. The above combo is where my money would go if I was buying new.
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Cheers for the reply/info :).

Main reason for floorstanders is that I much prefer the look to (bookshelf) speakers + stands (I know, I know the sound is what's important :p). Also decent stands tend to add at least £50, if not £100, to the total cost.
 
alx said:
Cheers for the reply/info :).

Main reason for floorstanders is that I much prefer the look to (bookshelf) speakers + stands (I know, I know the sound is what's important :p). Also decent stands tend to add at least £50, if not £100, to the total cost.
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I hear you, I was planning on doing exactly the same thing. Problem I found is that you just cant get a decent set of floorstanding speakers new for anything less then around £600. Of course thats just my opinion, but it was based upon hearing quite a few speakers. At you price range, and if you are buying new. standmounters on stands will well and truly spank a set of floorstanders.

The missions you were looking at were £249

  • Dali Zensor 1s - £199
  • Mission Stancette - £55 (45% off at audiovisualonline if its a competitor, sorry ill remove)

So for £5 more you are getting a far superior sound, again only my opinion.
 
kidloco said:
I hear you, I was planning on doing exactly the same thing. Problem I found is that you just cant get a decent set of floorstanding speakers new for anything less then around £600. Of course thats just my opinion, but it was based upon hearing quite a few speakers. At you price range, and if you are buying new. standmounters on stands will well and truly spank a set of floorstanders.

The missions you were looking at were £249

  • Dali Zensor 1s - £199
  • Mission Stancette - £55 (45% off at audiovisualonline if its a competitor, sorry ill remove)

So for £5 more you are getting a far superior sound, again only my opinion.
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Those stands look decent actually, and relatively cheap too! Cheers for the advice.

What about Tannoy Mercury V4s? They seem to get decent reviews - surely if you have to spend £600 to get decent floorstanders, speakers such as V4s and MX3s wouldn't get decent reviews? I understand that for the same money bookshelf speakers will nearly always be better, but surely that doesn't make floorstanders bad per se?
 
Not heard the Tannoys so cant comment how they sound.

Sound quality is so subjective and all down to personal taste. Ive bought speakers without listening to them, never again. Luckily it didnt cost me any money to send them back.

Are there no local shops you can nip into and listen to some speakers?. Then you can buy what you like the sound of rather then what magazines, website, idiots like me say to buy :p
 
£200 for stand speakers. That is cheap. My mate is selling his warfdales for around £300 they cost him £400. My Ruark MR1's cist me £300 and there desktop. But I loce them sound us great
 
kidloco said:
Not heard the Tannoys so cant comment how they sound.

Sound quality is so subjective and all down to personal taste. Ive bought speakers without listening to them, never again. Luckily it didnt cost me any money to send them back.

Are there no local shops you can nip into and listen to some speakers?. Then you can buy what you like the sound of rather then what magazines, website, idiots like me say to buy :p
Click to expand...

I'm sure there are, will try and look some up and take a visit :).
 
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