Three electrostat choices and my room-- need help


I am going to replace my old speakers. My wife wants only electrostats. I have wanted enough bass to finally have a full range set, good for organ, bass fiddle and maybe kick drum. I think our little club here has enough offerings for me to be ready to buy. So I start with three choices, but in each case, the ads here say "too big for my room".

My music room is 12 by 24. I like Martin Logan Prodigy, but feel the mark-up is a bit high, even used. We both like the Quad 989. And my wife likes the big Magenepans. What can my room tolerate? And all your wisdom is appreciated!
aceto
I think you've got enough room for electrostatics. They really need to be off the back wall, but with 24' you should be able to do that.

If you liked the ML Prodigy, consider an Odyssey. They're available here used for about $4500/pr.

The Magnepans should fit too, and the 3.6s are even less - new. Great value. Not sure about placement of the 20.1s although they would seem to have the same requirements as the 3.6's.
FWIW, here was my experience auditioning electrostats:
-Prodigy, at least the way the dealer set it up, was so fatiguing I had to stop the demo after 10 minutes. Sure, the soundstage was impressive, and they had plenty of resolution, but they were overbearing in both the treble and bass. Electronics were McIntosh solid state. The room was probably too small for them.

-Quad 988: nice sound, enough bass for my taste, but just a tick to the bright side. It took me about 45 minutes of careful listening to decide this.

-another electrostat you did not mention: The Soundlab U1. To me these were the most natural sounding, and they had impressive bass power and clarity. The soundstage was not as focused as the Quad's.
My only concern is your room dimensions, 12 X 24. Tough room for any speaker, never mind panels.
Big maggies are great(I own a pair and they are one of a small hand full of speakers I would ever own) but they are not electrostat's they are planer's- similar in shape(sort of) and have some of the same sound characteristics but that's where the similarities end. If she considers them electrostat's then by all means take a good listen to the 3.6 and the 20.1(if its in your price range). I am not a huge fan of ML's they tend to lack the coherency that make an electrostat great. I think the Innersound Eros MkIII is the "budget" electrostat to beat, in the hybrid configuration that is. Soundlab's do somethings wonderfully, but if you like to listen LOUD and to extremely heavy music anything short of the U-1 or U-B1 sub will leave you wanting more. That being said if you don't listen terribly loud and don't like heavy complicated music there may be a Soundlab right for you. Even maggie's have there short comings, if your room isn't right and you don't have the right amp it just won't happen, and you can't be affraid to turn them up! The louder they get the more resolution you get, which doesn't bother me, but some people really don't like that. Soundlabs are the opposite, they get maximum resolution at around 60dB! They are capable of playing much louder but you won't get much if any more information at higher volumes.

Of course as you've noticed electrostat's and planer's have speed, transperency, imaging, coherency and image density to kill for. Yet some folks still prefer the dynamics from point source drivers, so there are always trade offs.

In other words I think your heading in the right direction and suggest adding Innersound Eros MkIII to your list, besided Roger Sanders of Innersound a great guy :)