Magnepan MG-III New Ribbons

This listing is for a set of Magnepan MG-III (Not IIIA) in very good condition.
I bought these about 4 years ago from (I believe) the original owner.  He had them storage because of a negative WAF!

They appeared to have been lightly used so I bought them even though they were obviously 25+ years old at the time.

Because I was in the middle of a divorce when I acquired the speakers, they remained boxed up until a few months ago when I finally decided to do some serious listening and decide which speakers (out of the 6 sets I own!) to keep.  Unfortunately, one ribbon tweeter quit shortly after I fired them up. Upon investigation, I found that a slo-blo fuse was installed to protect that tweeter.  I was still surprised as I didn't think I had played them that loudly.  So I recently ordered a replacement tweeter from Magnepan, and at their suggestion, I replaced both tweeters as it was just another $100 (total was $100 per ribbon including return of both tweeters and shipping both ways).
After replacing the tweeters, and installing the correct fuse types, I have had no issues.  I have put them through their paces and even when playing them at what I consider pretty loud levels, they have produced absolutely no sense of strain and I have blown no fuses.  So maybe the old tweeter was compromised, or maybe the amp I was using wasn't up to the task of driving them properly.

After replacing the tweeters, the speakers sound quite good!  I remember MG III or IIIA could sound very bright (I worked at a Magnepan dealership at the time), but I now realize that the tweeter was simply ahead of its time.  Now I find that they are only bright sounding if the recording is terrible.  Otherwise, I find that the ribbons hardly call attention to themselves.  As the speakers are mirror imaged, placing the speakers so the ribbons are either to the inside or outside and toeing the speakers at you gives a great option of easily changing the balance. 

Active bi-amping is recommended as it increases efficiency.  I am currently running them with a DSpeaker X4 DAC/Pre/Room Correction unit as the external crossover.  While the speakers are easy to place and get good sound (in my opinion), having the ability to easily adjust relative levels of the bass section to the mid/ribbon tweeter section really allows you to easily dial in the sound to your liking.
Regarding the sound, I think they are pretty awesome.  Naturally and well recorded music is just mesmorizing and non-fatiguing.  I play mostly jazz (classic and current) and as long as you don't need ear splitting levels, I know of no other speakers that sound so natural and give the proper scale to recordings. 

They don't do ultra deep bass, but within their range (37 Hz), they can surprisingly yield a lot of quality bass output if your amp is up to it.

Regarding condition, the speakers look great.  I don't believe there is a single defect with regards to the fabric.  The black rubber edge trim around on the bases is coming loose in a few areas.  Once I take the speakers down and box them up, I will try to glue and clamp those edges to fix that.  There are also a few minor marks on the bases. 

Of course, the main concern with buying older Magneplanars is the possibility of delamination, where the adhesive that holds the wires to the mylar fails and the wires pull away from the mylar.  About 10 years ago, I experienced this with a set of MG 1.6QR.  After researching and finding Peter Gunn's repair instruction on the MUG forum, I went through the process of removing the fabric socks, cleaning off old adhesive residue, and adding new epoxy.  It works!  I ended up selling those 1.6QR, but I never heard of any issues from the new owner to whom I delivered and helped set up the speakers.

I have not removed the socks from these speakers.  I did inspect them by shining light through them and looking for any problem areas (usually occurs at the top/bottom of the drivers).  I find no evidence of any issues using this (admittedly) limited method of inspection.  But I can't guarantee it at this time.

These come with the separate crossovers which are equipped with thick cables (Levinson, I think).  The sound using the crossovers, even with a single modest amp (Emerald Physics 100.2SE for example) is quite good. The speakers easily fill my decent size living/listening room (21' x 13' x 8') with that combination.  Improvements from bi-amping with an external crossover and multiple amps (or a good multi-channel amp) are mostly quality as opposed to quantity.

I do have the original carton and packaging for the speakers (I believe the bases and crossovers were packaged separately), but the carton is not in good enough condition to protect the speakers for shipping in my opinion.

Therefore, I won't ship these.  If you want to hire a pack and ship company that will take responsibility for safe transit, that is up to you.

I will deliver these, and even help you set them up, for a reasonable price with a limit of about 3hrs one way from Bloomington, Il.

No charge for paypal.

Main speaker carton is 76" x 27" x 6", 130 lbs.