Your favorite Electrostatic, Panel spkr

richopp, I am very fond of Magneplanar speakers. I have owned two different models including Tympany 3's and have set them up for at least 6 clients/friends. They are a fabulous speaker for the money and they are relatively easy to set up if you have experience. I also owned Apogee Divas for almost a decade. However, none of the magnetic planars can come close to a full range ESL set up and driven properly. Full range ESLs have to be big and tall, at least 7"10". Only Soundlabs makes a speaker this way now. Smaller versions are OK but will not have the dynamic presence of full sized ones. Acoustat was the first to do it this way. unfortunately, they did not survive. The Soundlabs speaker is significantly better made than Acoustats however both speakers are the most indestructible loudspeakers ever made. You have to drive a stake through them to do any damage. My 2+2s are 39 years old, look and perform as if brand new. Unfortunately, this is not true of Magnepans. The tweeter is the best sounding magnetic tweeter made but it is fragile which is why Magnepan has a great tweeter replacement program. I have used it twice. The rest of the speaker is indestructible. Magnepans require crossovers full range ESLs do not until you get down to the subwoofer. The sound you get is unified in a way no other speaker can match. Add subwoofers and everything goes to a whole new level. Maggies can be improved my subs but the effect is not as dramatic as it is on a full range ESL. I say full range so as not to be confused with hybrids like MLs and Sanders versions. An ESL will sound like whatever you put into it. Whether or not a speaker is bright depends on how they are set up, the recording and the playback volume. 

Not to pick nits, but the famous tweeter in the big Maggies---3.7, 20.7, 30.7---is not a magnetic-planar, but a true (not quasi-) ribbon. So is the tweeter in the Eminent Technology LFT-8b.

bdp24- you are absolutely correct. The rest of the speaker is planar magnetic. You can not make true ribbons very wide. Magnetic energy drops off at the square of the distance so you can not spread the magnetism much of a distance. The Diva Mid range which was a true ribbon was a little over an inch wide and that was pushing it.The woofer was planar magnetic. It is also the reason the Maggie tweeter is a bit fragile. The ribbon runs in a "U" shaped extrusion with slots cut in it. Magnets are glued to the sides of the "U" The ribbon is tacked down every other magnet alternating sides with a little glob of blue something or other. The ribbon is aluminum foil laminated to a very thin layer of plastic. Most of you have played with aluminum foil. It bends easily and if you go too far it will crease. If you keep bending it back and forth it will work harden and break. It will break if it gets overheated which you may have seen if you barbeque 

barbecue with it. It is very fragile compared to other materials but nothing else works as well as aluminum. I tried making a titanium ribbon speaker with titanium foil and neodymium magnets. It worked great until the ribbon started to get warm (higher resistance than aluminum) then it expanded and started flapping and waving all over the place. So much for that experiment. Anyway, the Magnepan tweeter is much more durable that the Diva tweeter was but Magnepan tweeters are blown all the time. Fortunately, Magnepan supports their speakers well.  

@richopp
The ML HQD was an interesting look and I assumed that you wasn't suggesting for OPs room, but as a point of interest. I should have put a LOL after my comment.

I Always enjoy your posts.......Jim