Magnepan 3.6, 3.7 or Tannoy Westminister SE

From a price standpoint, you're looking at $5500 for a pair of Maggie 3.7s or $35,000 for a pair of Tannoy Westminster Royal SE's.

Maggies present a challenging load for amplifiers; the Tannoys practically demand a quality tube amp. They are two entirely different ways of creating an illusion of live music. I haven't heard the Tannoys, but I'm familiar with what good tubes powering high sensitivity speakers sounds like. Since I favor emotional involvement and immediacy, I have to say that if I had the coin and space I'd go for the Tannoys.

Still, to be fair pricewise, you could get a pair of Magnepan 20.1's *plus* a pair of JL F212 subwoofers (an excellent match), and although they would sound different from the Tannoys, it would certainly narrow the performance gap.

I've heard both. The right choice is very room dependent. The Maggies I heard, 3.7, did not have a sub so I may have missed something. Assuming you have the right room, I would go with the Maggies plus subs. Otherwise, Tannoy would be my choice.

I prefer Tannoys as I listen to a lot of orchestral and to me the Tannoys produce a more effortless presentation of a full orchestra and a more seemless and coherent sound. If you do listen to the Tannoys though I would recommend you listen to the Canterbury's rather than the Westminster as they are more neutral than the Westminster, no front loaded horn, but still have the 15" alnico drivers.

I have had the 3.6 for many years and if fed properly, they are splendid....pass, bryston, parasound, some high power tube amps, etc. A Tannoy is a very different sound. The maggie treble is legendary and only bested by what I hear from TAD and plasma horn treble by the ionovac tweeter which has a dispersion of nearly 165 degrees and is flat out to about 100k. Acapella uses a version of a plasma as does another maker. But for the money, maggie is a real tough act to economically or sonically do better in natural sound and transparency. A must is have both in your room, play your typical music and then pull the trigger. Jallen

If you have the money for Westminster SE's AND listen to classical music buy them.