Magico compared to Tannoy

@mijostyn, the Dead used 48 McIntosh MC-2300 amps in their Wall of Sound, and AFAIK they never blew one. They would, however, routinely blow drivers, invariably the sound crew would replace a woofer or 2 during intermission in the Wall of Sound era, usually due to Phil's lightning bolts. As far as imaging goes, no one has ever explained how a planar speaker the size of a wall is supposed to faithfully reproduce the sound of a cymbal which emanates from basically a point source. The reason line array drivers came into being was to be able to fill the entire large arena with sound. The Dead always sounded their best in a smaller venue like a 2-4,000 seat theater. Even then, the sound was incomparable if you sat close enough to hear the musicians own amps and the drums unamplified. Even after the Wall of Sound, Jerry and Phil continued to use MC-2300s as their own personal amps.

@gammaman, i'm very jealous of your setup!  I saw the Dead 9 times from 1973-78, and amazingly of those, the Dead have released 8 of them.  The most recent, Dave's Picks #38, was my very first concert!  The release sold out (25,000) in a matter of hours, fortunately I got one.  I have a great setup with a Hegel H360 powering Raidho XT-2's which can go nice and loud, and on good recordings, sound like I'm at the show.  A Oppo 105D is the HDCD player-- wondering if you have a HDCD player at all-- no one is making them anymore yet the Dead continue to release HDCD encoded recordings, can't understand why, maybe it's contractural.  I imagine that the sound is not quite like yours though!  The point of my post is that I have more than 100 GD releases (including the entire 73-CD Europe '72 box set) and one that you have to hear is Dave's Picks #29, San Bernadino 2/26/77.  The show is fantastic, the first set is incredible--among their very best-- and the sound is one of the best that I've heard.

@fred60, yes, I have an Oppo UDP-205 so HDCD supported.  Fine with me if the Dead keep releasing in HDCD :).  I subscribe to Dave's Picks, so I'll have to go home and check out #29. Whatever you do, hang on to that Europe '72 box set, it's getting to be worth $$$!

Gammaman, everybody blows drivers. The article I read said the Dead gave up on the wall of sound because it was a PITA to set up and move and "it was too expensive to keep replacing broken McIntosh amplifiers." 
With glass panels and meters Macs are not built for commercial use regardless of their performance in residential systems.
Now, how do large ESLs reproduce a cymbal? Simple. Everyone knows that a driver that is larger than the wavelength of the sound it is reproducing will begin beaming and it will start beaming in it's largest dimension. Thus a 1/4" ribbon 5 feet tall will disperse beautifully to the side but above and below you get nothing. An ESL that is 8 feet tall and 36 inches wide will beam down to about 450 Hz laterally An down to 150 Hz vertically. So as far as frequencies above 450Hz are concerned you are only listening to that very small part of the diaphragm directly in front and at the level of your ear. The lower the frequency the more of the diaphragm you are listening to. So, a large ESL will reproduce pinpoint high frequency sounds and a huge kettle drum. Now since the entire 3 X 8 foot diaphragm weights less than the voice coil of your loudspeaker's tweeter, has almost the same acoustic impedance as air, is controlled by the electrical signal down to the level of the molecule and has distortion levels more than a magnitude lower than any dynamic drive, not to mention that it is a full range driver and there is no crossover in the midrange or treble means that what you hear is far closer to reality than any dynamic speaker. Not to mention that if Mac amps are so hot why are you so chasing down a pair of JC 1+'s? 

 Not to mention that if Mac amps are so hot why are you so chasing down a pair of JC 1+'s?

Simple, my old Watt/Puppies have an efficiency of 93 dB, the S7s are rated at 89 dB. Just trying to get some headroom back. The JC1+'s appear to give the most bang for the buck. I'm afraid a pair of Boulder 3050s is a bit out of my league :)