Magico Mini 2 vs Kharma Midi Exquisit vs MBL 101s

with all due respect this is the most bizarre and inconsistent choice of speakers i have seen both design wise, sound wise, and price wise. personally i think the sonus fabers produce the most room friendly and un-fussy results of the speakers on your list, just for starters. another speaker which comes with adjustability std. to help conform it to most any room is the von schweikert vr-5se, and i feel it can compete with the best speakers available (except for "monster-size"). otoh, maybe you "like" the particular sound of one of the aforementioned speakers, even though from the above comments each conform to one person's tastes but not another's. so MY suggestion at the end of the day is- buy what "I" like, and be done with it! in point of fact, if you buy a pair of eggleston andra-2's for your 16X22 room, and you don't like them, i would really be surprised. all you would be giving up compared to "Very Expensive Speakers" is a bit of resolution through the midrange frequencies- which you might never miss since they sound so enjoyable on virtually every kind of music that is out there. but feel free to spend as much as you like- i did, and i was more-or-less ready for an upgrade. but the improvements would not make the egglestons sound "broken" or insufficient.

French Fries Actually all of these speakers, with the exception of the SF, have a street price of about 30K. I hope to here all of them at this years RMAF.

Sirspeedy
In my experience, the Magico Mini sounded more aggressive than all the different Kharma's I heard, even grating. Perhaps due to partnering equipment. The Martens use mostly ceramic drivers too, and i haven't heard people say they sound aggressive. Ceramic drivers do sound dry, and ring a bit at high volumes, esp when partnered with wrong equipment usally SS amps.

Alectiong,

the Mini's don't use a ceramic driver. (after re-reading your post i may have mis-interpreted your comments, you may not have intended to say the Mini had a ceramic driver, so i added this note) the original Mini used titanium in a constrained layer sandwitch. likely due to feedback that it sounded a bit dry with certain amplification the Mini was reworked and now the Mini II uses a 'Nano-tec' mid-woofer. i think Nano-tec is carbon fibre.

ceramic drivers are not inherently dry. but they have remarkable stiffness to weight and therefore are very linear. with their accuracy they do require very good amplification; and will not tolerate edgy or dry amplificiation. the top level Accuton ceramic mid-range used in the Kharma Midi Exquiste and the Marten Coltrane have black resonance discs on the cone that eliminate the ringing you refer to.

the best implementation of ceramic drivers uses two of the top Accuton ceramic drivers. using two ceramic midrange drivers increases dynamics and slam (ceramic's lone weakness) and makes them even more linear. the Evolution MM2 and MM3 and the top level Kharma and Marten use this approach. i have yet to hear better mids than i hear from these speakers. accurate, transparent, quick, rich, organic.

it is a mistake to generalize about ceramic drivers.

Having heard Marten Coltrane, Magico Mini, and MBL 101E, though in different setup, I will say you are out of luck trying to find answer here.

They are so different, all three of them.

MBL 101E, or any MBL to be exact, still works well close to wall but does sound better if you have them far away from back/side wall. To my ears, the bass is a little muddy at times and high does not have as much air/extension compared to the best tweeters out there. I also don't like the low efficiency fact, you lose some jump factor no matter how many watts you feed them.

Marten Coltrane can be fatiguing over time, unless you spend mega bucks on upstream which can produce details and no grain. I find the diamond tweeter easier on the ears than ceramic, but those ceramic midrange still sound dry and analytical. I heard the big Avalon ISIS, Lumenwhite, and Avalon Eidolon, same impression. I rather lose details over musicality in this case.

Magico Mini left me not too much impression, I sure didn't think it was worth the asking price. The dealer even told me he was glad to sold his pair.

Some speakers you might also want to consider: Tidal acoustic, Burmester, Gryphon, and Usher BE.