Well I was thoroughly enjoying the sound of my Paradigm Studio 80's being driven by my new Torii MKIII w/ Jupitor Caps, when about 2month into it the mid range woofer on the Left spkr blew out.  I had driven them hard for 7yrs so not surprising.  So down I went to the basement and pulled out my 20yr old Snell EIII's that the Paradigm's replaced due to the foam surrounds having rotted away.  I refoamed them and was back in action.  Bass was incredibe w/ the Torii, way more authoritive than it ever was w/ my 180watt per chan Anthem SS amp.  Mids awesome as well.  But the treble just wasn't nearly as pronounced and nimble as I remembered.  Don't know if the long term storage in the basement of my 90yr old house had a negative affect on the tweeters or what, but I definitely am missing some higher freq information and it's bugging me...after all I'm not hearing the full potential of my great amp  :(

Anyways, what the hell,  I've had my eyes on the MG944 for several years now and so have decided to bite the bullet on them.  (Fortunately I have a very understanding wife and I'm sure she'll be happy for me, I mean "Us",  when I tell her about this tonight....I mean, she will,, right???  ;)   Anyways, it's kind of a gamble as other than the limited number of reviews on this site, there is not much else out there on them.  But I have trust in the Decware brand, and based on everything I have read, am really looking forward to the day, 3-4 months down the line per Sarah, when they arrive at my front door.

It would be nice however if anyone here could comment further on their thoughts about owning this speaker, it's sound characteristics etc.  Especially when driven by the Torii MKIII.  My room is smallish, 11' by 13' and I listen mainly to cd's and sacd's but these will also be used for movies/tv.

Thanks

Greg

Hi Greg. Congratulations! I am driving the MG944s that Rivieraranch sold to me with an SE84C+ in a room about the size you mention. I listen to CD, SACD, FLAC. I have a blend of Decware and MAC* interconnects.

I can only imagine how happy you will be with these when paired with your Torii III!

I had them in a larger room at first and the bass left something to be desired. I was constantly turning the amp up to get the bass I wanted and my wife was always asking me to turn it down! I've had them in the smaller space for about three weeks now and I am thrilled! We were listening to Bud Powell Time Waits the other day. My kids were dancing and having a great time and my wife, unsolicited, exclaims how "great the stereo sounds down here!"

A magic Decware moment.

*What happened to MAC? I can't find a website. Emails have bounced back...

I am using HR-1s in my main system now, but love the 944s. Still have them, but use them infrequently in my work area. Neutral with excellent bass, mids and highs. Great sound stage. After a hundred hours or so they sounded great. Then they kept getting better, until the mid/bass drivers were fully broken in.....then the sound went beyond great to expressive.

Hey Greg,

I think the 944s excel at musical upper mid to high articulation and dispersion...as far as I can tell, these are big-time areas of concern for soundstage development and saturation. And since Decware is designed for a very high level of musical transparency across the fequencies, I suspect you will be quite impressed with the 944s, perhaps even finding them a different league. I hope so!

But in my system/room, even with a great design, the balance of the sound (bass/mids/highs) is critical for soundstage saturation. In my experience, if the amp/tubes are set more for low mid and bass emphasis, this can overwhelm the upper-mids and highs just enough to cause the soundstage to be less saturated. If the Paradigms are set up synergistically with your Torii, and your room is not reflecting in the wrong places too much, and/or cutting or masking the upper frequencies, or exaggerating the low mids and bass, then the issue could be the speakers, recording, or even that your source can't work out that complex material. Hard to say. But if this continues with the 944s, my guess is that you can start trouble shooting elsewhere.

If you have not already experimented with it, you could test this upper frequency balance thing with your Paradigms. If the soundstage is good on less complex stuff and falls apart on complex recordings...does turning down the bass knobs a little (tightening the bass) and/or increasing the treble knobs a bit, improve the soundstage on these problem recordings?

Once the system/speakers and room match well for a good soundstage, I find that fine tuning the highs and bass (with amp adjustments and/or tubes) so that it works well across recordings is tricky. But it is also rewarding once you get close. There is such a vast range of recording quality, and frequency balances, that this revealing gear will show it. It will also show that a lot of stuff was not mixed with gear that revealed soundstage well.


But Steve and ZYGI are all about helping us find a rewarding balance of revealing and forgiving, so I am guessing you will like those 944s in your system.

And with the highly adjustable Torii MkIII to help you find your balance, seems to me you will be in great shape for great music.

https://www.decware.com/newsite/waitinglist.html  
I knew it existed, don't know where though. Bing found it for me.

Greg. Sorry, I only responded to your later post...did not notice that you were using the Snells. Let us know how they do with the cranked up complex music. Not sure what tubes you are using, but if the treble is already up on the Torii, you can very likely get more treble in the balance with tube changes.

Burn in depends on your hourly use, and then the particular caps, and the particular tubes, but a hundred hours or so would likely put your amp and tubes in pretty good shape, and then things will continue to improve for a while. The Jupiter caps in my Zstage were good early on, but continued to improve for probably a couple hundred hours.

That sounds like a nice tube set..warm but dynamic and detailed. I really like 7DJ8s too, though the Nationals get less use for me than others. I have used all the tubes you mention but the Mullards, and I am guessing your front voltage regulators are Raytheon, like mine, but don't know what is in the back voltage reg position. Having the Tungsols to roll in would be interesting. Do they tighten/open things up a bit? What do your big/back voltage regulators look like? Are they tall and straight-sided...or coke bottle shape...any brand marks?

How would you characterize the congestion? Do you like what you hear in tonal balance? Is the congestion in a particular tonal area?

Sounds like you are liking the Tungsols in your setup. It is all so variable with room influence, system variations, the tube set synergy, cabling, and so on, that some might not like the Tungsols, and in another system/room, they might dislike the Mullards. Thats why I like comparing tube to tube within a given type like you have done here with the Mullards and Tungsols...direct comparison can be pretty useful no matter the variables between system/rooms.

Do the Tungsols solve the congestion issue? The Russian VRs I have a very open and clear (generally a bit too much so for me), so though I think you can probably improve your sound a bit with some different OA3s, I doubt that is the congestion issue. That is unless you have excess mid bass/bass even with the Russian VRs. Then I would look into getting a different O_3 to lighten things up a bit...an OB3, OC3, or OD3 depending on how much you want to chill the density and open things up.

Alternately, if you like the Russian VRs and how they push the power tubes...the bass feels good, and the sound is not too pushy or dense, not in your face...there are of course 5 tube sets in your MkIII. Each makes a notable difference, though less with some than others. You could find input tubes that are less dense than the Nationals, power tubes more laid back than the Tungsols, but still open and clear, or Rectifiers that are a bit more open and spacious than the Phillips.

I recently picked up a pair of MG944, and I have to say, the 945 did catch my attention at the Decfest. I was trying not to notice them though...I mean, I just did pick up the 944....

But yeah, I kinda agree with Steve. The MTM design is very location specific for the sweet spot, and the sound was a bit more lively. I can't explain it any better than that, because, like I said...I tried not to notice. LOL