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Small room electrostat/ planar speaker?

In about 30 days will be moving to a new home where its going to be hard to make my 1.7 maggies work in a spouse friendly way ( the only large room is the main living room). I've always gravitated to planars and electrostatics, box speakers that don't sound colored or slow usually cost more than my entire system. Where I'd like to end up is a system that's extremely resolving at low to moderate volume levels, my main dissatisfaction with my current Mg 1.7 speakers and Prima Luna amp is that it really doesn't come to life until the volume is moderate listening levels or higher.

I'm wondering if anyone has seen something that approaches the coherency and speed of the 1.7s that would work in an 11x12 listening room? I'd like to keep the cost limited to $4k if possible.
128x128davide256
bassdude
497 posts
 
Well... if you like the Maggie sound... you should likely consider the MMG’s and .7’s for that size room... or... maybe even the Mini-Maggies with DWM.

But... if you want to consider a proven "giant killer" - you’ll want to consider these, which I prefer to my Maggies...

http://www.wavetouchaudio.com/products.html

They do well in small, or large, rooms - simply unmatched sound quality at almost any price.
aniwolfe
761 posts
 
One other thing to consider about the Eminent vs the Maggies. The Eminents do not go below 7-8 ohms. Its a much easier load for your amp. Eminents love Volts (tubes) rather than Watts. So that’s a huge consideration vs something like a Maggie in your situation. You want a speaker that react great to tube amps...especially lower powered ones..
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,851 posts
 
Good point, aniwolfe. And though probably not called for by the LFT-16a, using a moderately powered ss amp on the dynamic woofers of the LFT-8b and the same in a tube amp on its m-p panels is optimal. The panels themselves present an about 11-12 ohm load to the amp when separated. They deserve and respond to superior amplification!
wtf's avatar
wtf
307 posts
 
Another vote for the Omega's single driver loudspeakers. If you want to stay with Magnepan the Mini Maggie System should work nicely in a room that size.  FWIW, I've had MMGs for a little over 5 years (love them) and while they do many things well, I prefer my newly acquired Omega Super 3i's. 
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Omegas are fine speakers and Louis is one of the nicest guys in audio.
But they have a small sweet-spot(like Maggies) and sound far better with tubes than SS .
So much so, I would say they require tubes .
Also, the ability to play complex music well, aka a, symphony , is just not there .

Again, they are very good , if I was going to listen primarily to jazz might well be my choice.
I have owned 2 pairs .
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