Magnepan vs. Martin Logan

I react most strongly to the differences between the dynamic envelopes of the two speaker lines. The MLs are more articulate at low volumes and are more efficient, playing louder with less power. This favors orchestral and big band music that has wide dynamic swings. They also play louder, which is important for rock. The Maggies are just plain more reticent, requiring a lot of power to get to a volume where they sound present, but never getting really loud, regardless of the power available.

Sounds like maybe nobody here has heard the LATEST offerings from Martin Logan? I have owned many Logans (Sequels II, Aerius i's, ReQuests, Odyssey's, Prodigy's) but actually got my first real taste of the "high end" back in the mid to late 1970's with a pair of Magnaplaner MG11a's, and more recently had a pair of 3.6R's (in between the various Logans listed).

I always felt that the Maggies had a much bigger-than-life soundstage, and were always pretty "musical". The Logans, on the other hand, seemed to somehow sound more realistically sized in the image dept. and at the same time seemed to offer more detail, while still retaining that magical, musical qaulity of the Maggies.

Then, just recently, I aquired a set of the new M.L. Summits -- they are a whole new ball game.

With the proper ancillaries, the new Summits are light years beyond anything I have heard prior. IMO, I just not have seen Magnaplaner continue down the same dedicated path in the innovation and R & D department, with new designs, as Martin-Logan.

Between hearing the two at different dealers the Maggies would get my vote. They seem to integrate the music better than the ML's. With the ML's the sense of having the base separate from the mids and highs seemed to tarnish the sonic image. The maggies also seemed to represent a better dollar for sound value as well. Both of course benefit from a solid upstream in gear. Both would be a blast to own.

Owned ML Sequel II's for years, Odysseys for 2 years. Maggie 1.5's for 10 years. I now own the Summits. Yes, I love stats. The Summits combine all I loved about the previous models, great tone in the mid rage, great imaging and stage depth. What the older logans lacked was fast tight tuneful bass, that could match the clarity of the panel. The Summit has made the intergation with the bass almost perfect, when placed properly and combined with world class equipment. With less then world class equipment they are ruthless in exposing flaws in a system.

What I liked about the Maggies they were smooth from top to bottom. However, for me the bottom wasn't low enough. And to me the high's were a tad bright for my taste.
They were more forgiving with lesser equipment, and poor recordings. I haven't heard higher level Maggie's to comment more.

If your a stat lover and looking in their price range buy a nice tube amp and a pair of Summits, and enjoy the music. In a normal home listening room, for one person listening, I don't think you can reproduce better music. Regardless of how much you spend on speakers. (Just my 2 cents)

I have had both maggis 1.6-3.6 , Martin logans in the Request their last mk-2 . The martin logan was fast with a bit better inner resolution , the bass does not match the panel speed even with the prodigy I heard the bigger Maggi s ribbon beat any tweeter out there ,even the smaller 1.6 sounds more seamless than the Martin Logans, If you have the room rhe big 20 is a giant killer, in the Maggi line,but these require high current to make them sing .
also the big Sound labs are probable the most dynamic of any panel loudspeaker, the Innersound speakers are a very good panel conventional speaker setup-although with a tighter sweetspot, this is a 2 year observation overall.