North East Wisconsin Audio Society of Green Bay

Left side XO
Above you can see the left speaker/stand and XO. Points to note: I've experimented with different materials under the components on the XO board, and found packaging airbags to be quite effective. For shipping the XO's I would place bubble wrap over the components and use packaging film wrapped tightly around the entire board, to prevent anything from moving around during transit. You can see here how the Nordost flatline wires come through the backplate. This eliminates a set of terminations entirely. The stock speakers have the driver leads terminated on crappy posts attached to the small backplate you see above. On the back of the plate is the crappy fuse and attenuator assembly....all that stuff has been removed. The great thing about this arrangement is that you can easily experiment with active XO's, not just a two-way, but a 3-way. You can see the quality/size of the components used for the XO quite clearly. The large red things are Solen iron-core inductors. The smaller bronze colored items on the left of the board are Alpha-Core aircore inductors. Most caps are solen fast caps, but I've used Jensen oil/paper and Kimber caps for the HF. You can see the custom stands quite clearly in this shot. I've added the uprights for extra rigidity and welded the seems. The stands are spiked to the carpet, and it's easy to change spikes, perhaps to AudioPoints or whatever.
Left Side
Points to note: You can see clearly the new uprights on the custom stands. Much like the MYE design the provide support up to the middle of the speaker - far more efficient than the crappy Magnepan feet. (the feet are included in the sale, as are the stands). The stands can be adjusted via the 3 spiked feet for tilt. I have them set at around 2-3 degrees forward tilt, not that this made much difference. I've experimented a bit with using an absorptive shim between the stand and the speaker. Some people say it's better to have a little compliance in the whole assembly, rather than having it all locked-down too rigidly. You can see where the uprights attach to the rear of the speaker, there are rubber shims between the attachment brackets and the wooden speaker frame. You can see the rear of the tweeter assembly here. Magnepan supply the speakers with a magnetic guard that fits over the tweeter assembly to prevent damage during shipping. I have both guards and of course they will be provided with the sale.
Stand Feet
Nothing really earth shattering here. There's a minor mark or two on the bottom of the cloth.
Wood Trim
This is the worst of the blemishes on the trim. This is an area of about two inches. It is a fairly minor mark that looks worse in the photo due to the flash. But it's visible. These are not scratches, more like impressions into the wood. I have a fairly nice home and I wouldn't put junk speakers in my living room. The blemishes do not detract from these speakers in any way. For those more particular than myself, a complete trim and cloth kit can be had for around $500. Alternatively, you could remove the trim and have it sanded and refinished. The cloths are about $100 for the pair. Personally I don't think it's worth the bother, the speakers look great!
Right Side deflectors
Nothing much to see here. If any Magnepan owners are reading this, try the simple mod that I'm showing here. Place a 2x2 absorptive board behind the speaker as shown. To potential owners, this is a tweak, nothing is attached to the speaker, it's just an acoustic foam panel which deflects the rear wave upwards and prevents some negative combing effect.
Right Side Rear
In this shot you can see the incision that I made in the back cloth. This could very easily be repaired, but it's hardly noticeable unless you go poking around behind the speaker!
Right Side Rails
Some minor 'speckle' marks in the trim, again the flash really exaggerates the marks.
Scary Cat
Bandit likes to position himself in the sweet-spot and listen to his favorite music by Cat Stevens.
Front View
Not sure that there's any value in the shot, but you'll see one of the reasons why the speakers are being sold. There's too much glass in the room, too many large windows. So I suffer with a brighter sound than I'd like to have. The room is 45'X28' with a cathedral ceiling that goes up to 28'. It's too big for 3.6's.
Right XO
Same as the left XO.
Right Trim
Another little blemish on the trim.

Modified set of 3.6's.

(Email me for full details of mods...)
Here's a summary:
Rewired internally with Nordost Flatline, direct to drivers, bipassing internal XO.
Leads from drivers come through the rear backplate and terminate with silver spades.
Rebuilt both internal and external XO's onto one (each side) large Mahogany open base. Used premium parts through XO including:
Cardas Binding posts -
Jensen Caps
Solen Fast Caps
Kimber Caps
Alphacore air-core inductors
Solen iron core inductors
Used premium DH labs cable, cardas solder/flux etc

These are not your ordinary 3.6's....a new level of performance with many of the weaknesses in the stock speaker greatly improved.
Fast, open, dynamic, transparent, good bass, clean highs, great imaging/staging....a tough act to beat for under 10k

I would prefer it if these were auditioned/collected, rather than bought unseen. They look great but with some minor cosmetic blemishes. There's a 8" cut in the back of one of the cloths and some small marks in the wood finish. Magnepan quoted $500 for replacement socks and wood trim, but it isn't worth it, they look great.

I also have custom stands that I'll throw in for the lucky new owner. These are based on Sound Org 3.6 stands, but I've added an upright/brace for rigidity, much like the MYE design. I've also welded all the frame joints for extra rigidity. Stands look and sound great but can't be dismantled for shipping.
Buy these puppies and your speaker search is over.

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