Magnepan

About this resource

Magnepan was founded by Jim Winey in 1969 following his development of the Magneplanar loudspeaker. The company locates its manufacturing and corporate facilities in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Although Winey’s early experiments were informed by electrostatic speakers, Magneplanar is a thin-film magnetic design; the two transducer principles should not be treated as synonyms. ^[1]

The quasi-ribbon arrangement attaches very thin aluminium conductors to Mylar film near magnets, distributing drive across the diaphragm rather than pushing a cone from a cylindrical voice coil. The company distinguishes this construction from its true ribbon, where the aluminium element itself carries current and moves air. Selected higher-end tweeters use that true-ribbon approach, while the open panel lets rear radiation enter the room. ^[1]

The live site separates floorstanding speakers, support models and the Mini Maggie system, and highlights the LRS+ as a direct-purchase entry point. Dealer and international-distributor links coexist with factory service and parts requests. Its engineering discussion specifies amplification able to drive a four-ohm load. The practical attraction of the catalogue is a range of panel-based systems, not a claim that thin-film construction removes room-placement or amplifier-matching requirements. ^{[2] [1]}