I have never heard Eminent Technology but have heard other models from Martin logan and Magnepan.
Martin Logan:
I found that for the Martin logan Summit x and Spire sound very good. The Spire seemed like a very good buy. They are fast and very clean with stunning highs. BUT all models under them came up pretty short. The Vantage and purity were just bad IMO of course. The bass did not blend well with the rest of the speaker. The Purity was unlistenable for me. The bass was a big blob and the mids sounded like a different speakers.
With that being said all the Logan's had great midranges and vocals with amazing inner detail. I have never heard the CLS,CLX but I am sure they are great.
Magnepan:
I just listened to the Magnepans (1.6, 3.6, and 20.1) for the first time yesterday on all Mcintosh gear. They were all really great. They were balanced, had very good detail and a very good soundstage. The bass was very detailed but not hard hitting on the 1.6 and 3.6. The 20.1 ($13,000) had lots of bass...
The 1.6 would be a good buy used. If you are going to buy them new I would wait for the 1.7s to come out. They are just around the corner and should be a big step up over the 1.6. My only concern would be that the 1.6s would not have enough bass to fill your large room but I don't know. The mids/vocals are very good. They filled the room and made the singers sound very realistic . The mids had lots of body and warmth (on the Mcintosh gear).
Magnepan vs Martin logan: (note these are general statements related to the lower end Martin Logan and Magnepans).
I would choose the Magnepans in your price range. They will be much less tricky to set (opposed to cone panel combo of logans) up and more coherent top to bottom. The Magnepans lack some of the speed and transparency in the mids compared to the logans but if you did not hear them back to back you would never know what you were missing. The sweet spot is much larger on the magnepans (still a little small compared to cone speakers) than on the Martin logans in general. Near or far field listening seem to work fine on the Magnepans while you need some space to get the bass to blend well with the mids on the Martin Logans.
Anyway these statements are just my opinion and you should go listen for your self. Good luck and enjoy the music!
Martin Logan:
I found that for the Martin logan Summit x and Spire sound very good. The Spire seemed like a very good buy. They are fast and very clean with stunning highs. BUT all models under them came up pretty short. The Vantage and purity were just bad IMO of course. The bass did not blend well with the rest of the speaker. The Purity was unlistenable for me. The bass was a big blob and the mids sounded like a different speakers.
With that being said all the Logan's had great midranges and vocals with amazing inner detail. I have never heard the CLS,CLX but I am sure they are great.
Magnepan:
I just listened to the Magnepans (1.6, 3.6, and 20.1) for the first time yesterday on all Mcintosh gear. They were all really great. They were balanced, had very good detail and a very good soundstage. The bass was very detailed but not hard hitting on the 1.6 and 3.6. The 20.1 ($13,000) had lots of bass...
The 1.6 would be a good buy used. If you are going to buy them new I would wait for the 1.7s to come out. They are just around the corner and should be a big step up over the 1.6. My only concern would be that the 1.6s would not have enough bass to fill your large room but I don't know. The mids/vocals are very good. They filled the room and made the singers sound very realistic . The mids had lots of body and warmth (on the Mcintosh gear).
Magnepan vs Martin logan: (note these are general statements related to the lower end Martin Logan and Magnepans).
I would choose the Magnepans in your price range. They will be much less tricky to set (opposed to cone panel combo of logans) up and more coherent top to bottom. The Magnepans lack some of the speed and transparency in the mids compared to the logans but if you did not hear them back to back you would never know what you were missing. The sweet spot is much larger on the magnepans (still a little small compared to cone speakers) than on the Martin logans in general. Near or far field listening seem to work fine on the Magnepans while you need some space to get the bass to blend well with the mids on the Martin Logans.
Anyway these statements are just my opinion and you should go listen for your self. Good luck and enjoy the music!