Speaker Technology over the last 10 years

Thanks, mrtennis. I have no local dealer any longer, so we'll see. However, if you're all about the planar, then why would you be mentioning a hybrid? Wouldn't that be a no-no for you? From my recollections, granted, years ago, they were never successful. So what gives? and, speaking of newer speakers, I hear the new King Princes were garnering lots of praise at the recent shows, and no hybrid. Have you heard em yet?

what hybrid are you referring to ? the new magnepan uses a panel woofer. i believe it is similar to the bass panel of the 20.1. by the way, i agree that integrating treble/midrange panels with cone bass drivers can be difficult/

Oops, I misread, sorry.
so nothing on the Kings?

Ah, you initially said woofer, mrtennis, not bass panel, so I assumed cone. They'd still have to come a long way to impress me. It also seemed the bigger they got in the old days the less I liked them.

04-27-09: Chashas1
Ah, you initially said woofer, mrtennis, not bass panel, so I assumed cone. They'd still have to come a long way to impress me. It also seemed the bigger they got in the old days the less I liked them.

Pardon me for injecting myself into this conversation, but Magnepan calls them woofers. That doesn't disqualify them from being bass panels as well. As for the size, they are not as large as the bass panels of the 20.1, but are a downscaled version of the same. As I said before, the Magnepan woofer and small panels sound faster than the 20.1s.

Integration between the woofer(s) and panels couldn't be better. Transient response is about identical, and here's the kicker: the woofer can respond up to 7 Khz, so blending with the satellites is easy. It doesn't start beaming or running out of response at 125 Hz like a regular woofer. It's the most seamless-sounding separate woofer/sat setup I've ever heard.