. circa 1976 . magnepan is a private high end audio loudspeaker manufacturer in white bear lake minnesota united states . their loudspeaker technology was conceived and implemented by engineer jim winey in 1969 . contents 1 overview 2 models 3 references 4 interviews 5 external links overview edit magnepan s speaker design sold under the brand name magneplanar often referred to as maggies in the industry differs from that of conventional speakers in relying not on cones mounted in an enclosure but on a planar driver system mounted in a panel . a magneplanar s reproducing mechanism comprises thin conductive wires and or foil strips attached to a thin sheet of mylar residing in a magnetic field created by a vertical array of permanent strip magnets . when an amplified signal is applied to the conductors the resultant electrical forces react with the magnetic field to excite the mylar film sheet which projects sound as a dipole . in principle this approach relies on the same concept as a voice coil driven cone speaker but in a magneplanar speaker the voice coils are attached glued directly to the radiating surface . a pair of restored 1986 smga magneplanars . sound is projected from both the front and back of the radiating surface . the sound from the back of the speaker is reflected from the front wall of the listening area . this is said to effectively enhance the soundstage the sense of space and realism of the speaker . the magneplanar design using a passive magnet array is not a unique loudspeaker implementation although it was the first of its type . eminent technology analysis audio and others also employ passive magnet designs . broadly these are classed as planar magnetic speakers . there are other similar speaker designs to the magneplanar . martin logan and quad electroacoustics among others make electrostatic loudspeakers which are another variation on the dipole model . electrostatic speakers operate on a somewhat different principle . while the voice coils in the magneplanar are conductive wires or foil strips mounted on a sheet of mylar film electrostatic speakers suspend a charged conductive film between two grids stators which move the film . one disadvantage of both designs is that a very large panel is required to produce deep bass . magnepan has addressed this via the physical size of the speakers a physically large radiating surface produces more bass . martin logan has addressed the bass problem by mounting a conventional cone bass driver in a separate section of the speaker chassis generally resulting in a physically smaller speaker than the magneplanar . the most frequently cited disadvantages of the overall design are relatively low efficiency and given the absence of an enclosure extreme difficulty in reproducing very low bass frequencies . models edit model type technology freq . response sensitivity impedance size production years magneplanar mmg floor stander 2 way quasi ribbon planar magnetic 50 hz 24 khz 3db 86db 500 hz 2.83 v 4 ohm 14.5 x 48 x 1.25 inches 1995 present magneplanar 1.7 floor stander 3 way full range quasi ribbon 40 hz 24 khz 86db 500 hz 2.83 v 4 ohm 19 x 65 x 2 inches 2010 present magneplanar 3.7 i floor stander 3 way full range ribbon tweeter 35 hz 40 khz 86db 500 hz 2.83 v 4 ohm 24 x 71 x 1.625 inches 2013 present magneplanar 20.7 floor stander 3 way ribbon tweeter planar magnetic 25 hz 40 khz 86db 500 hz 2.83 v 4 ohm 29 x 79 x 2.062 inches 2011 present references edit the audio circuit magnepan interviews edit jim winey maggie s man in stereophile january 2003 external links edit magnepan incorporated magnepan users group retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title magnepan & oldid 743075573 categories audio equipment manufacturersloudspeaker manufacturerselectronics companies of the united statesmanufacturing companies based in minnesotaelectronics companies established in 19691969 establishments in the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschitalianosvenska edit links this page was last modified on 7 october 2016 at 17 13 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view