QUAD vs Martin Logan vs Magnepan

I have owned Magnepan 3.6's and now listen to ML CLS's with a ML Depth sub. The 3.6's needed to be playing fairly loud to sound their best. The ribbon tweeter always seemed to be a bit hot. I could never quite get it right. I even actively biamped the 3.6's. The CLS is a low level detail champion. I don't have to crank up the volume to enjoy them. They are totally seamless since they have no crossover and are basically a single segmented driver. I run the CLS full range and flush the sub in from the bottom up. The 3.6 had much better bass and in my opinion does not need a sub. If my listening room was larger, the 3.6's may have been the ticket. The CLS seems to work better for me.

stick with the maggies, even if you upgrade. the quads are good too, but you will spend more for less.

You get what you pay for!
MMG's are cheap and may sound really good in the "right" position with the "right" amp in a really narrow sweet spot. Bigger Maggies are a much better comparison to ML & Quad.
The ML's are more forgiving of listening position and easier on your amp. My favorites for the money.
If money doesn't matter, I'd pick the Quads.
Keep in mind that power matters with these speakers more than most. I wouldn't even dream of running these with less than 100 watts and would prefer 200+.
My final rant: Room size matters. These all like big rooms. What are your room dimensions? Ceiling height? Can you place the speakers 3 feet from any wall? I heard the quads in an amazing room but they were 5 feet from any wall, in a room about 20 x 35 with 11 foot ceilings and ran on huge parasound monoblocks.

Of those brands...Maggie 20 series would be my top choice (you will need a very large room)...none of the other Maggies beat the Quads IMHO. Matin Logan...I could only own the CLS's (with subs)...maybe?...I've never heard them with subs to be honest.

Dave

Newbee tells it like it is.

I've owned three pairs of Quads, five pairs of Maggies, and one pair of Martin Logans.

Here's the way I'd put it: The larger Maggies tend to have a relaxing and forgiving tonal balance, but are a little lacking in upper harmonic detail compared with the Quads. The Quads are (to my ears) a little bit forward in the lower treble region. Martin Logans don't have quite the detail of the Quads, nor the coherence of the Quads or Maggies, but they will play deeper in the bass and are in my opinion the most physically beautiful electrostats. Getting a good blend between point source woofer and line source panel isn't easy, and is somewhat distance-dependent, so I would say that either the Quads or the Maggies are going to sound more consistent from one room to another.

As Mrderrick notes, Maggies generally need to be cranked up a bit to really "come to life". If your listening style includes a lot of low-level, late night listening, then an electrostat might make more sense.

The good news is, I don't think there's a bad choice among these three brands. I'd call the Maggies the most forgiving with the widest sweet spot, the Quads the most detailed and revealing with a fairly small sweet spot, and the ML's in between with deeper bass but possible bass/panel integration problems.

Duke