Jim Winey, inventor of Magnepan, passed

[AnotherJohnson]

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articl ... 1934-2024/

[admin]

Very sad to hear. Truly one of the few that changed the audiophile world. I've been rocking the Maggie 20.1's for many years and am still in love with the unique sound. Glad to know that the company continues and carries on Jim's legacy.

[Big Dog RJ]

Without a doubt! RIP J Winey, yet another legend in the making of true audio gear.

Those were the glory days, in fact the Maggie's were our main panel speakers that drove our dealerships across the region. I'll never forget the first encounter: This is going back to around 94/95. There was one particular chap in hometown cmb, who always upgraded to the latest and the greatest, just because he wanted to have it and his parents were the ones who had the money, not him! Anyway, one sunny Sunday arvo, he had returned from Spore, had purchased these huge Infinity's. So we were all invited for the opening ceremony... what a blast. About a few months later, another speaker arrives, this time Thiel's top of the line CS7 something then another few months, it was VMPS (no longer made) then another few months Dunlavy's (no longer made) and finally onto the Pipe Dreams speakers. Then one sunny arvo, one of our dealers had just received a crate of Maggie MG3.5/r and we all went to see this beautifully crafted panel speaker system. Asked what's moving the drivers if any...? Said they were ribbons with long magnets...uh? Driven by an Audio Note preamp, and Melos 400w Triode monoblocks (no longer made) oh man! Did that open the house!!!

It was such an awe-inspiring experience that we were all wondering where on earth are the cabinets, drivers, woofers, tweeters... well it had external x-over boxes but the rest of the norm in conventional speaker design was totally nonexistent! What as outstanding recreation of recorded music. Just truly superb! That chap who had all that fancy gear, bought that very Maggie pair and that's all she wrote!

After that, we obtained dealership and Maggie's flew in through the windows. I personally used several, MGIIIa, MG3.3/r, MG3.5/r, MG3.6/r, MG3.7/r, MG20.1's, MG20.7's and... that's about it. Didn't get to the MG30.7's but have extensive experience with that model, since a very good mate of mine was the one and only person to import the 30.7's into Aus. He no longer uses them though, just prefers his triple stacked Klipsch horns. After replacing more then 16 ribbon tweeters on various Maggie models, did I realize only then that the ribbon tweeter is so fragile!

It was actually the Maggie's that brought many kinds of amplifiers into our dealership because many types of amps simply couldn't drive them! So we were introduced to Krell, Bryston, Sumo, Hafler, Parasound, Harmon Kardon, Threshold, Forte and Class'e amps, all of which were either matched with tube preamps, from Sonic Frontiers, ARC, VTL, Manley Labs and CJ. Those systems were amongst the very best regardless of price, simply because the Maggie's cost less than half of those lofty speakers back in the day, and surpassed every one of those makes with ease! Even in LF detail! It was a true VFM speaker system and it's what Magnepan stood for. Even Apogee's couldn't keep up, although Apogee's were tops and notorious to drive.

I still believe, even to this day! Take any high-end speaker in the range of 15 - 20grand upwards... the Maggie's will come pretty close and in certain areas surpass them, even in the 20grand price range. Again true VFM! Nothing beats them. They're not the best when it comes to build quality and finesse in workmanship (lots of staples and glues used...) plus those bloody annoying speaker terminal little thingma bobbins... but that's what Mags has always done. They've never deviated from their original true ribbon tweeter and ribbon elements on the main panels, plus their design principal has always remained in line with what J Winey had first incorporated with his Tympani design. After Jim's passing or rather leaving the company for others to run, launching the mighty 30.7's was a challenge. The pricing went into the very high-end category... in certain countries it was around 50grand! I sincerely believe that JW wouldn't have wanted to design such a speaker system, after all the Tympani 1D and other iterations was his top project. Even J Cardas owned Tympani's and they were Maggie's finest at the time. The 30.7's I don't think ever quite got there. However, the MG20.7's were mighty fine!

Still to this day, many are being sold here, once again VFM, Mags really captured that market segment with an iron first!
So here's a big cheers to J Winey and his team at Magnepan!
WOOF! RJ

[roberto]

Mr Winey sold to me my tonearm. The Unitrack. I was attending to the SCES headed in Chicago. In the Magnepan room, I was intrigued that there were a wooden block with two big nails and a tonearm. You could hammer with the tonearm those nails. They were showing how stiff is the carbon fiber and so light. Also anti-resonant. I remember that I went early to their booth to see the new models of Magneplanar. I had at that time the eight panels the Timpani 3B model. He was looking and he said, go ahead, hammer those nails with the tonearm. And I did. What a great way to proof the stiffness of a product.

Sad news...