Broken hearted...magnepan and vandersteen


I finally got an opportunity to hear the 1.7i magnepan. I will blame my ears and taste, but I was underwhelmed. I heard them with tweeters inside and outside for comparison. outside did sound a bit better. Then I allowed them to play the vandersteen quatro ct. The speakers disappeared into the music. Deep, tall, wide soundstage with excellent imaging and air around the different instruments. Full range sound. Thankfully the trio ct sounded almost the quatros equal. I really was ready to go with magnepan. I was surprised. All other speakers are sounding inferior now. 
glfrancis2
Another direct sell brand to consider is Philharmonic Audio Dennis Murphy makes some outstanding sounding speakers high quality parts at reasonable prices.
Having owned Maggie 1.7i with a Parasoumd Halo Integrated I thought it was a great sounding system combo, just add a sub if you need real deep bass. I have since moved up the Maggie line.
Dennis Murphy has had some personal issues and is not currently selling speakers.  Jim Salk is continuing the the BMR and was kind enough to step in and finish Dennis's existing orders.  
@OP,
You can also go with the Treo's like I have and get a pair of 2wq subs.
A bit less expensive, but gets you 85-90% of a pair of quatro's.
B
I have considered something like that also. Anyone have Spatial Audio? Since that has been mentioned here, they intrigue me
I had a pair of Maggie MG-IIs coupled up with a Vandersteen 2 sub-woof, got all of that stuff for <$1,000 It was a great match except it presented a pretty complicated load, i.e. 1.0-Ohm in some spots, so you need a Bedini or similar big hurky s/s amp to run it.