Planar to dynamic, dynamic to planar, or ...

I'm a back and forth fan. I have a pair of Maggie 1.6's and a pair of Aerial 6's. The Aerials are dead on musically, and I've never heard anything image like they do. THey are small, and don't really care where you put them.

The maggies don't image as well, and it's hard to get used to the taaaalll soundstage, but if you're not into critical listening, nothing fills an apartment with music like a pair of maggies.

cone or horn designs have a coloration i don't like. there have been a few exceptions, such as an early gradient, aerial 10t, esp bhodran and maybe a proac response 3. however, i suspect that after a period of time, i would tire of those cone designs.

once you have listened to the quad esl, it is not possible to listen to conces too long.

by the way, ribbons and planar magnetic speakers sound different than electrostatics. i prefer electrostatic--full range, but the occasional panel replacement drives me nuts.

currently i have maggies, but i miss the esls.

I ended up with a second system with Infinity RS1b's to listen to when I missed planar sound. Certain music sounds better with planars and some with cones. The Pipedreams are still the big kahuna here though.

My girl is not too happy with me but it sure sounds good!

Best,

Paul :-)

I love my VMPS hybrids. With a low bass woofer and a mid/upper bass woofer mated to planar mids and ribbon tweeters it seems to be the best of both worlds. Dynamics are excellent like cone speakers and the super transparency and imaging of planars are still there.

Except for the bass I also like Magnepans. They need alot of power to sound decent however. You may want to try a line array. Selah audio makes some outstanding ones. These can also be super dynamic, highly sensitive and have the transparency of a full planar or electrostatic speaker. Selah audio has a forum at audiocircle and although I've never heard one of Rick's speakers, the reviews are extremely positive. You do need a decent sized room for those speakers.

The line arrays may satisfy your needs as they have a row of woofers and a row of ribbon tweeters. Selah also has them with built in subwoofers.

Even though I have excellent dynamic speakers now, I still vividly remember the sound of a properly set up Apogeee Duetta and Martin Logan CLS from the mid 80's. It felt like I just walked in on a group of live musicians playing in front of me. Uncanny.