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A Question for Maggie lovers/owners

I have recently had the great pleasure of listening to some great sounding high end systems recently. These systems had speakers such as Kharma, Wilson, B&W, Thiel, Goldmund. Each system, with the different speakers, had something I admired and truly enjoyed, however, none of them had a quality that I refer to as "musicality" or just a "naturalist" way with the music like my MG-20R's in my home system.

Now, the point of these post is not to argue what the BEST speaker in the world is, their is no BEST, but many great sounding speaker systems, but to pose this question to other Maggie lovers: Do you often listen to other speakers that you enjoy/admire many of their sonic virtues, however find them not sounding to your ear as "musical" or as "natural" as your Magnepans? That other speakers do certain things better, but do not give the "Gestalt" of the music like Magnepans do?

It would be great to hear the opinion of other Maggie lovers or other Gon members who might not agree with this soundpoint.
teajay
d_edwards
204 posts
 
"That other speakers do certain things better, but do not give the "Gestalt" of the music like Magnepans do?"

As a past dipole lover and maggie owner, the gestalt you seek is the reverberation created by a fullrange dipole speaker.

The monopoles you listed when played in surround sound (5 speakers DPLII, Trifield), actually pickup where the Maggies left off. Because you can now control the ambiant field

The sense of being there or the music being in the room, is created by a dipoles ability to obscure the "room" impact on the sound by washing it down with ambiant noise.

A surround system does the same thing but with much greater precision, and no using dipoles in surround is not an Uber solution. Its a bad idea actually.

Ever listen to Maggies with the back wave cut down significantly? same small distant presentation created by the monopole speaker you listed. The "gestalt" removed the advantage gone.

I know it sounds crazy, but I haven't heard a dipole system in a decade that I'd spend significant money on. And the only reason is surround sound. The next step for 2 channel people who are at the end of 2 channel performance.

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guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Teajay, I confess do so pine for MG20Rs or 20.1s, yet currently I power my ancient MG3As through the generous reserve of current of my trusty old Rowland 7Ms. While I do enjoy my Maggies oh so much, I have also found that Babybear's Vandersteen 5As right now are delivering a sound that is most Maggiesh to my ears. When -- IF my better half will say -- I upgrade speakers, I will consider MG3.6 and MG20.x first of course, but also some box speakers such as Vandersteen 5As and a few others. . . and no, sorry, I will not even remotely entertain a multi-channel system. . . . Maggies or no maggies as may the case be.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
i am a magnepan owner. my friend has a pair of mg3s. i like the "sound" of magnepans driven by tube amps.

full range electrostatic speakers, to my ears sound more timbrally accurate than any magnepan.

i have owned quads--the esl and quad63 for many years. ihad replaced quad panels several times and decided not buy another pair of quads.

by the way, the apogees also are more realistic sounding than the magnepans, especially in the mids and treble.
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
if i ever abandoned drivers in boxes, if would be for maggies....no hybrids or quads
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