Maggie 1.6 vs Von Schweikert VR 4

Hi,

My local dealer has been trying to get me to purchase the same speaker for quite some time- IMHO, for imaging nothing beats a planner. But subsonics are another story, what our local high end dealer has been doing, offering 8", 10", and 12" Velodyne subs with the maggies for the "bass" lacking customer. With the right room/crossover point, the maggies are breath taking. If I didn't have the money I have in my self built speakers, I would own what you have and a decent sub. I am presently looking at Martin Logans to clear some space and allow for a much more spacious sound that the maggies/ml's provide, yet the ML's offer this in a single package due to the addition of an actual cone woofer present. Floor space is saved and spl comes up due to the cone woofer.

Even so, if out right impact is what your after, the Von's will get you far better performance then your maggies or the Martins, but then so would any cone driver speaker of decent quality- imaging, however would suffer.

Remember, air movement is what creates the sound we humans hear, it's how this "air" is moved that creates the sound(s) we want and desire to hear as music.

who cares if 3 fingered kids make the speakers?
Child Labor ROCKS!

To me these two speakers are like apples vs oranges. Totally different approaches to design, totally differnt flavors. Each has its specific virtues and weaknesses.

The 1.6s might want highercurrent and/or more refined amps. And a fast sub like a Nola Thunderbolt would give you a lot more impact. If you haven't treated your room, fersher do that. You have a nice preamp that should be very dynamic with ample bass. There are some things than planars do well that are very hard to give up. (I had Maggies for years.) Try to audition a sub and different amps before you get on the speaker merry-go-round. The 1.6s are hard to beat for the money.

OTOH, faced with a large room and similar problems, I must confess I went back to cones 'n domes a few years ago, albeit not VRs, and the speakers I did end up with retain many of the planar-like charactaristics I liked with my 1.5s (Alons, now Nola.)

After trying amps and sub(s) with your 1.6s, if you can't get happy with them, listen around to a variety of speakers. You might also want to consider VMPS speakers with their ribbon tweaters in addition to others already mentioned.

The maggies will always be some of my all time favorite speakers. Not much to add to what has been already said.
Planars have an addictive sound that's just not duplicated by any other speaker. I gave my first pair to my father.Went back to cones...that didn't last but a couple of months.LOL

Turned right around and bought another pair. Enjoyed the hell out of them.Reason I sold them was because of the space issue in the room and power requirements to get the best out of them.The Eminent Techs are also great at this with more impact. You need a boat anchor with power to get them sounding as they should though.

So far the only other speakers I could live with besides planars have been single driver cone speakers. They image just as well..images aren't as large though.The power requirements aren't much.Unfortunely most still need a sub to really get good low freq extention. They don't have that boxey sound and maybe a few pegs more transparent than the maggies.

Honestly there's no real replacement for a planar except another planar.LOL

Have fun!

If you go to a sub for music only to match with Maggies I would recommend the Vandy sub. Best match in my opinion. But I own a Velodyne DD12 because I use it for movies as well and I don't have a perfect room. The Vandy is great though, super fast.