martin logan vs magnepan sound

As a Magnepan owner I understand anything I say will sound biased BUT at one time I was considering both. To me, the difference was between a great "in theory" design compared to a "less perfect" theory but better execution situation.

A planar speaker fused to a very dynamic woofer seemed like a great idea. It should provide the lower octave that the planars, including the Maggies, were missing. However the Martin Logans, while sounding very clean and open upon initial listening, started to bother me after 15 minutes or so. There was a noticeable difference between the speed of the electrostatic driver and the much-too-slow woofer.

It just didn't work for me... and I went in WANTING it to. (I loved the look of he M-L's and thought the closer to "full-range" speaker would be perfect.)

The Magnepan 3.7, to me, had a much more coherent sound, a very nice three-dimensionality and better ability to locate instruments in space. They also just sounded more like real music, especially on vocals and acoustic music.

Just one man's opinion.

I have owned both the MG 3.6 and currently the ML Montis, with Audio Physic Avanti III in between. The Midrange of the maggies was incredible, however even with great wattage from Bryston amps, you can't get Bass from them and in the 90's, no subwoofer could integrate with them. I have heard a demo system with two subs and sounding great, but adding 6k is a stretch. Also with the wide panels, they require a large space to get that disappearing effect. For 9k, my Montis speakers disappear, can go down to 29 hertz. Perhaps using a pure tone at the 340 hz crossover, there will be some incoherence between the panel and cone, but I challenge anyone listening blindly to a musical passage to identify it. If 44 thousand dollars falls into my lap, I'm off to by the Vanderseen 7's. Until then, I'm loving my music.

Im sitting listening to my old ML CLS llz . Contemplating a speaker change. I’ve owned some older Maggie’s remembering enjoying them. Owned a few ML’s . When I first hooked up the CLSllZ, it blew me away 15 years ago. I have not had a good in home a-b between the MLS and the Maggie .7s. I do enjoy low level music resolution of the CLS,s. I have spent years tweaking the system and like where it is. I guess it might be time to re panel.. $2800.00. Or Maggie .7’s?

I still own Maggie 1.7i and recently got a Martin Logan motion ESL at a great price! As I was longing for the sound of the violin I once heard with ML that I don't get with my Maggie's, Harbeths, or Audio Note! For treble ESL hands down especially if you pair with appropriate tube amp. I heard them all horn, plasma, beryllium, ribbons.  Maggies are a bit more airier with the right resistor in place (Mundorf) but doesn't sound as real like ESL.

I loved an old pair of Maggie's I heard in the late 70s but bought Martin Logan SL3s in 1995 as my first pair of true 'higher end' speakers and loved them for 16 years as my main speakers. Finally unseated by Dynaudio Sapphires for five years, and now Raidho D2s.

I have no doubt I'd own a Magneplanar now in place of a Martin Logan and for all of the reasons generally posted above. Perhaps with the mods folks recommend, and a bit of judicious digital equalization, they'd be great for hours and hours of enjoyable listening.