I hate to jump in again, as my views are well known, but it's frustrating to see what i feel is some distortion here when i've heard 13 sets of them.........to anyone who loves their magnum as is or doesn't like nitpiking or engaging in constructive criticism or feels there is no variation in drivers, please feel free to move over this post to the next one that is less controversial. The views expressed in the following may seem hardened, intractable or overly confident, but I've got decent ears, 25-30 years of listening to essentially the same record collection, and I know what i've heard in my system and where the magnum driver may fit in, as well as having built and played traditional stringed instruments out here in the real world for the same 25 years. so I feel a right to try and clarify. After all, the more clear we can be about what we hear in v4's, the better chance we have of getting a neater variation v5. To that end, i'd like to offer two things:
I would say dcrange should not regret selling grey drivers because they were the color grey necessarily. If there be any regret, have regret selling X particular set of drivers that had a category of a sound signature you liked.........I've had 3 sets of greys and at least as many blacks all with essentially that same darker, smoother, mellower signature of the greys. Now how could that be if the greys were unique?,,,,,,,,,,having said that, feedback and folklore does seem to point to a possible observation that there may have been less variation within the greys (but in reality, maybe not as not every grey's signature is known) but still, you can likely find that signature in black as well if that is the magnum you desire. No worries. The problem is it may take a few orders/attempts worse case scenario......
and to questhate, I would say while it's true there is a difference in those two sets you had/have (i've heard those exact two sets as well as you know), it is not true or fair to brand all blackie's with that edgy label. In fact the more brittle/presence sets seemed to be exceptions ime, as I never came across another with that signature. (In fact it may not be fair at all to even mention them since they were so oddball. the general populous may imagine that magnums have such issues when to my ears, they have more real issues that we could be discussing like some coloration, in the hopes we can get a slightly more natural V5 in the future
Still, No one hears some issue with acoustic stringed instruments and snare drums being a little colored/artificial ? Doesn't anyone have a turntable? Just by hearing the exaggerated surface noise (which has a touch of 'radioacitve' color) of vinyl would tell you something's up.......... Back to the variation issue. There seems to be a range from the extreme oddballs on the 'edge' all the way to the much more common and smoother greys. questhate had the two extremes at once fortunately/unfortunately. That is where the problem is. But at least he knows the range of v4's and while it's large, it's not so extreme - (for others reading who haven't heard the range).............and the more basic piece of info I have is that there are other sets in the middle of those two extremes. So, unless things have changed at the 'ol 'factory', at the very least there are 3 categories they might be lumped into, to keep it simple. 2 if we disregard the edgy sets as flukes, More, depending on how finely one wanted to divide them up. The only way for us end users to do make such a division is to order a dozen sets, mount them in identical cups and cables and listen and i've probably come as close to doing that as anyone else besides the maker? In my dreams if he had me help out in a v5, I'd strive for the sets that had a little more presence than the 'greys' and I would like to hear some more natural sound in strings and snares. That would truly make them 'top tier' imo. Although I'm sure it's not an easy task, or even possible to tweek drivers and get them to come out all sounding the same. I imagine that's where companies come up with the offereing of 'choice' to a consumer or why there's pepsi and coke. Variations on a theme. It can be seen as a + but only if the buyer knows in advance if he is buying pepsi, coke or cherry coke. Otherwise it's kind of frustrating.
but then again, all my listening has been in wood cups except for one set in symphones metal, so those with metal cups may not have any use in the details of the above info, and that includes the maker, who designed these for metal. Although the variation issue would still be valid, the sound signatures i've heard may not.