Noob Planar Speaker Advice Needed

Maggies are not satisfying at low levels, so like me, if you use your system for long periods at background levels (in between actual listening sessions) you probably won't be happy.

That's interesting. I was so taken with the 1.7 at CES that I'm thinking I may want to give them a try, but "not satisfying at low levels" could be a deal breaker.

Drubin, my remark about low level listening with Maggies might not apply to the small(er) models, I don't know because I haven't spent time with any of them.

With the right amplification, they do stand up and sing nicely at higher levels. At lower levels, the ones I'm familiar with sort of thin out at the top and from the lower midrange on down; making it a perfect candidate for a preamp or receiver with a "loudness" control contour circuit.

FWIW - I have heard of the low level listening 'problem' with Maggies before but I think it is only in comparison with something like a Quad ESL which excell at low volume detail. I owned 1.6s for a few years and the thought never occured to me (maybe the bass was down in level a bit but detail seemed fine at low volume) and I am sure the 1.7 must be better than the 1.6 in regard to detail.

Philojet, you are right about the Quad however low listening richness is a quality that extents to all electrostats IMO.

You will not get mids that blow you away with planars or cones if you don't put bass traps in the room. I'd start with a good amount of bass traps before buying new speakers. Something like GIK Tri Traps. They can be moved to a future room easily. They can go in corners, can be stacked in corners, can go along floor/wall boundaries too.

What you should get with planars over cones isn't necessarily better mids, but different mids. A more seamless midrange maybe. What you should experience also is the dipole deep and airy sounstage. Also the super fast quickness of transients, attack and decay, but once again, you won't experience this if you don't have bass traps. Poor bass response in the room will mask this. The other thing you'll need to do is commit to putting the speakers well out in to the room, further than you would cones. See the Cardas dipole calculator to see what the location is.

And you already probably know about the power you'll need.

The ET's have some advantages over Maggie 1.6s IMO. They arguably do not require as much current, but still need power. This can be a cost differentiators. Also, I would speculate you'd need to modify the Maggies to equal the ET's. And the ET's have high frequency adjustment. And you might need a subwoofer with the 1.6 but not with the ET's.