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The folks from Pulheim in general talk of ongoing technical evolutions for their existing solutions. Here all the drivers are new. Whilst the tweeter continues to go by 'fmax', it sports broader bandwidth particularly downward (crossover at 2.800Hz), higher efficiency and even lower distortion than the previous driver. The new mid/woofers are visually distinguished from the earlier versions with their inverted dust caps said to better resist vibrational surface modes. Though hard to spot with the naked eye, the entire diaphragm geometry has been reworked as well even though the core building block of a ceramic-skin aluminium compound remains. All this equals the horny pursuit of the devil which lives in those little details that make an acoustic difference as tracked also with a laser-guided and quite costly Klippel Analyzer. This R&D tool enables the graphic visualization of undesirable material behavior like breakup and torsional modes to eliminate them early during the design process.
Such costly measurements don't replace the ears-on phase of product development which even for their affordable models is standard MO for Magnat as witnessed years ago. Measurements simply assist and confirm subjective impressions and decisions. I dare say that here they also helped exorcize a certain Pop attitude of the Quantum 705 predecessor. That attitude was a slight lower-midrange emphasis which I'm very familiar with from actual owners of the speaker within my audiophile circle. The 755 thus feels more neutral as though it meant to take the reins from the now discontinued 905 whose marriage of audiophile accuracy and emotional involvement had left such an indelible impression in my memory.
Particularly with electronically enhanced music which kicked off my audition, this sonic distinction between various 7-Series generations became apparent. The wave-like stacking of the theme in TV on the Radio's "Staring at the Sun" [Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes] tends to massage my feet and gut already at SPL barely above room levels. That's because the synth-generated bass run simply contains oodles of information. Here both my Quantum 905 and a pair of review Phonar Veritas P4 whose cubic volume was a bit smaller than the 755's produced more low-bass pressurization, impact and 'blackness' (not merely thickness which I wouldn't have liked).
For broad-spectrum transparency this voicing obviously favored the Quantum 755. But this shouldn't imply that the Magnat couldn't do bass. I think that its minor restraint in the bass discipline actually serves a higher purpose. Compared to the other two speakers the 755 felt freshest, most angular and as such tremendously aspirated musically. The vocal range gained clarity and structure. Where the 705 precursor applied minor warmth and opulence to the vocal band—say on Jamie Cullum's “What a Difference a Day made” from Twentysomething which admittedly wasn't unsympathetic—the 755 played it more sober, clean and thus arguably more honest. Some listeners could prefer the older more colorful reading whilst others should prefer this greater transparency. Matter of taste.
When designers apply any undue focus on specific tonal nuances, this can eventually backfire. The particular sound or personality one admires with a particular firm or model can with a new product introduction suddenly shift in unexpected fashion. Here Magnat's latest deserves no such warning. Its developers applied their new drift into greater neutrality in a way which doesn't undermine pleasure. That's because the model's typical attack punch—that hard-to-explain upper bass effect which aims squarely at the lust button to make one smile—isn't merely still in effect but under the described weight loss diet has become more marked and modeled.
