What speakers can make a convert of Maggie lovers?

Hi Dave,

If I ever went back to a planer type...it would surely be an Apogee with updated XO's and ribbons! Puts Maggies to shame IMO.

Now..take your meds! ;-)

As a huge Maggie fan I agree with Greg on the shortcomings of the Maggies. I had Maggie 3.3 and 3.5 and they were so incredibly musical but Greg nails it with their weaknesses. His comments are not absurd at all as they are relative to other speakers as noted.

It is interesting that Greg describes the pinpoint imaging of Proac speakers. I would describe the Proac 2.5 as the most pinpoint-imaged speakers I tried in my room when I borrowed many speakers from 3 different dealers here in Minneapolis. This was initially impressive and yet it did not sound natural as musicians occupied almost no space; I knew exactly where they were and yet they were a point, not a 3-dimensional object. It did not matter as the Proac 2.5s had a tonality that was all over the darn place which made them way too unacceptable anyway. Perhaps the Proac 3.5 are a different matter in this regard. There will always be tradeoffs and for me, the Maggies at that time were the clear winner in sheer terms of musical enjoyment over the many speakers I had tried in the $3-4k range.

When I changed from Maggie 3.5 to SoundLab A1 speakers, it was very evident how much more low-level information existed in the music that I had missed for many years. The Maggies are good but now with the SoundLab, it's a whole new world of detail at low and high sound levels. Until we hear something, we do not know what we have missed; and once we hear it, it is darn tough to go back. This describes the Maggie-to-SoundLab transition I made early last year.

And on the issue of diffused imaging, with the Maggies, you can not walk around the room and expect the performance (images) to be in their same locations. This also results in very different tonality as you walk around. You can walk across the back of the room with the SoundLab and everything stays much in place. This is very impressive.

I would add one additional weakness of the Maggie as bottom-octave extension. They do fairly well but against the SoundaLab, it's not even close. Just the difference in the amount of air moved is significant.

John

I've always loved the Maggie's sound. The Eminents Techs aren't bad either. Yesterday I listened to a friends Eminent Techs powered by a Classe 300..what a monster amplifier!!! Well to say I was disappointed is an understatement.

I came home and played the same recording on my system..which isn't perfect..whose is? Well what I noticed before I ever listened at home was how muffled the pianos sounded. They aren't as distinct as what I've become accustom too. Neither was the upright bass which sounded slow and wooly. The music sounded some what disjointed, I really can't explain it. The Eminent Tech is a 1st order speaker.. I still heard the lag in timing of the crossover. The bass ever so slightly dragged behind the mids and the tweeter seem to lead the way. If you're accustom to it..you won't notice it. A year and half ago I wouldn't have noticed this.

Single Drivers aren't perfect but there are somethings they do I just haven't heard from planars I've spent time with.The planars do throw a large and open soundstage, with that non-boxy sound..which I like very much.

I've always loved the planars sound ..until I spent a year with single drivers. There's just so much music that you never hear with those complicated crossover networks. Also there's the dynamic contrast. It wasn't there with the Eminents and the Classe.

The music didn't have that start and stop jump factor. This is where the music climaxes and brakes quickly without compressing. I don't mean playing loudly. What I mean is when someone plays a piano live. The notes jump at you at different volumes depending on how intense the pianist is playing. If it stays at one volume ...somethings wrong!

Maybe this is a product of fairly efficient speakers ..I don't know. What I do know is, I can't live without that part of the music. Without it ..it doesn't sound as real too me.

So single drivers converted me from the maggies. Especially the larger cabinet based SDs..infact the larger the better.

Jafox, thanks. You seem to get it. My only point was that proac is diametricaly opposed to maggies. Which I thought was the point of this thread.

I would try to hear paper cone speakers - they have warmer sound than metallic sound of the maggies. In fact, many audiophiles still think the paper cones give the best tone.

Try to hear classics like Tannoy, Jensen, JBL, Klipsch, and EV. I fell in love with their sound of alnico magnets. They don'
t build them like they used to, unless you pay mega-bucks these days.

I love their wide and deep sound stage of 15 incher coaxial.

Try to hear Tannoy coaxial big ones - not the plastic ones. If you like the sound, you probably like other ones I mentioned as well.

They do sound different from Maggies - warmer.

If you are into rock, JBL 4312 might be good for you - you can get them for a couple of hundred $ used. Not as good as Tannoy, but rock fans seem to like them.