Vandie .7 vs Maggie .7

I’m surprised you haven’t received any responses.

I owned the Maggie 1.7is and the Vandy 1Cis. Overall, I think the 1Cis are the better speaker. The 1.7s require 80db ^ volumes to really open up. At lower volumes, they sound anemic and have little dynamics.

The 1Cis have deeper bass and are far less power hungry. Additionally, they have a more realistic timbre and decay. To my ears, they’re superior in every way, with the exception of midbass speed and slight distortion in the upper midrange of some songs.

I’ve since moved onto KEF LS50s. These speakers are about as musical as the Vandys, but have a more refined midrange. They don’t sound as "open" but have a wide sweet spot that doesn’t require painstaking setup. My room is rather large for the KEFs, so I fill in the lowest octaves with a sub.

Even though I used resistors with the Maggie’s and the treble attenuator of the Vandys, some recordings were still overly ripe in treble. My Yamaha amp has tone controls but I never reach for them with the KEFs

For reference, my ears are 32 years old. I’m not a musician but have many musicians in my family (my daughter currently plays the viola) and I’m familiar with the sound of live instruments. When shopping for my reference system earlier this year, I auditioned dozens of speakers under $5K and concluded my search with Spendor SP2/3R2s.

bottomline - they are both xlnt

In the 1990s I tested Vandie 2c I owned vs. maggie 1.5's I'd just bought - spent a month - listened every night - no TV - varied source material

Finally, I decided to sell the Vandies but it was a difficult decision.

OTOH, I think Maggie has evolved more rapidly than vandy since then so it may not be so hard a decision.  The 1.7's are really nice

if you listen only to rock maybe V

if you listen to a lot of jazz, female vocals, likely M

I think Kalali said best. With your equipment the Vandy's should sound better. If you can eventually get a 2wq sub or two, you will way ahead of the game-Vandy subs use a crossover that alleviates the power demands of low frequencies on your amp. So, you can get a speaker system about  as good as a pair of 3a sigs-possibly better.
And, yes I do love the Maggie sound. They just need more power to open up.
B

I have not heard either specific current models, but i have heard a LOT of Vandersteens over the years, and some of my dealers were RV's dealers.  I owned 2s, 2Ces and 2Cis and had my electronics driving the full-on 5 system at a couple of local dealers. I even heard the old 1Bs (back when the 1 series were an inexpensive, 2-way system, at roughly $700/pr.) I date myself.

Given that you have modest (but yes, good) and lowish power electronics, that has to be a consideration - and Vandys are among the easiest speakers to drive. Not only are they relatively efficient, but their impedance is pretty easy on electronics.  Always musical, they respond well to better input material and to good setup in the room.  Vandersteens' sins are those of omission, not commission.

You really need to listen for yourself, but with $10k worth of equipment driving them in a dealer, it may not reflect your real-world situation -- and i try to avoid the "slippery slope", or "cookies and milk" or whatever you call the spiral that can result :-)

G