Broken hearted...magnepan and vandersteen

kenjit,

You should let Richard Vandersteen know that he has been doing it all wrong for the lasts 40 years and several hundred thousand pairs of speakers.  Maybe you can show him how to design a proper cross-over while you are at it as well as what he is doing wrong in designing his drivers.  

Salt and talk are cheap, You do have to admire the willful ignorance of a holiday inn speaker designer

salt and talk and steep slide filters are cheap Pistonic drivers in the pass band, not so much. 
To each his own on sound and value @noromance my offer stands and I guessing the vino is better here than at the hotel :-) oMG what a boring world if we all like the same stuff....

kenjit,
What is your speaker of choice???

If you truly want to hear a true maggi it must have their great ribbon the the 3.7 or 20.1 and they like a lot of current .

I never even look at specs, to me they do have a sound.  BUT I understand if others do.  That being said, you can get a pair of Vandersteen 5As cheap these days in the $6K range.  I never go by any dealer or show set-ups because they never sound as good as my system does.  For example, I just finished a Class A power amp just for kicks.  Put them on my Vandersteen 5As and I was so impressed how they worked together.  So far the best combination I have heard with them in my system.  I don't hear this sound when I go to a dealer.  So unless I can hear it in my system, I don't really have an opinion either way.

Happy Listening.