As for the sound of the speakers, I heard them this past week in New Jersey at Audio Connection, courtesy of John Rutan. If you like Maggie's, you're going to love these speakers. They have all of the Maggie qualities that set them apart from other speakers and then some. There is an ease to them that makes the sound so relaxed and natural. This kind of sound is very, very seductive and everything sounds really wonderful on them. They were being powered by a Cary SS 200WPC stereo amp, AI Modulus 3B Preamp and a Linn CDP. Very nice electronics but not to fancy or expensive. I can only imagine what they would sound like with a more expensive, powerful and refined front end. Good thing is that they sounded fantastic with this combo.The wholeness of the speaker is quite remarkable and the cohesiveness of the bass,midrange and treble is even more seamless than the always excellent Magnepan presentation. I own 1.6's and have always loved what the Maggies do and these take those traits to another level of refinement to my ears. I hope some of you can get to Audio Connection or somewhere that's got a pair for demo and give them a listen, as I'd be curious to hear what others think.