Impressive review, Socrates! Thank you for your time and dedication to writing that up. I think what you have described is essentially the capstone of audio loudspeaker design, particularly in the type of transducer technology, voicing and ultimately to what the designer wants to accomplish. It took me 15 speakers to learn what I preferred. The Maggies are surely on that end of the spectrum - break taking detail capabilities and extremely revealing, but to my ear they lack the emotional qualities such as musicality and harmonic texture.
But I would argue that the Pens are also very detailed, in the sense that they convey all of the music and are not rolled off. As you pointed out on the Pendragon, the triple SB Acoustic tweeter array is doing allot of the work, so its certainly not all on the drivers. The tweeters are some of the best i have heard, and I have owned Esotar2 tweeters. I think allot of this has to do with comparing the two technologies, as you most certainly did a great job of ribbons are almost always unforgiving, but highly detailed to the point that one can hear into the recording like never before. The danger of this type of detail level is that while can one will hear everything, one will hear EVERYTHING. On the other hand, a speaker like the Lore/Pendragon, trades off detail for the ability to be more forgiving, more convincing as a live music transducer, and high on the emotional content because it can be run with lower powered tube amps which most of us would agree, is the main reason why we get the great tone and harmonic textures that make the presentation so satisfying to listen to.
And, therein lies the fork in the road, where one is either an audiophile, or a music lover... or as in your case, one can appreciate both.
But I would argue that the Pens are also very detailed, in the sense that they convey all of the music and are not rolled off. As you pointed out on the Pendragon, the triple SB Acoustic tweeter array is doing allot of the work, so its certainly not all on the drivers. The tweeters are some of the best i have heard, and I have owned Esotar2 tweeters. I think allot of this has to do with comparing the two technologies, as you most certainly did a great job of ribbons are almost always unforgiving, but highly detailed to the point that one can hear into the recording like never before. The danger of this type of detail level is that while can one will hear everything, one will hear EVERYTHING. On the other hand, a speaker like the Lore/Pendragon, trades off detail for the ability to be more forgiving, more convincing as a live music transducer, and high on the emotional content because it can be run with lower powered tube amps which most of us would agree, is the main reason why we get the great tone and harmonic textures that make the presentation so satisfying to listen to.
And, therein lies the fork in the road, where one is either an audiophile, or a music lover... or as in your case, one can appreciate both.