Magnepan, Best midrange?

@twodolphins There are no perfect speakers, but Sound Lab speakers are 99,97 perfect... The best Magnepan will give you only 80% experience of properly set big stats. That's a personal opinion. If you have a room, go for Sound Lab. Then you should buy also a big tube amplifier to drive them and an air conditionning. There's only one amplifier that works in perfect synergy with big stats. You will find it by your own, I will not mention it here, otherwise people will accuse me to do a marketing job for that company.

Don't be shy. You raved about how much better Sound Lab speakers are compared to Magnepan but are more concerned people might think you're promoting an amplifier for them?  OTLs do sound great. I still own a Joule Electra VZN-80.

You'll love the Maggie; it also has no LF, just like your FR.  :(

You'll have severely compromised sound, which is what you are working for. You'll get it.  

Quasi-Ribbon Magnepans all have a very restricted MR/HF listening window approximating the middle 1/3 of the panel...higher or lower and you hear a drastic rolloff of detail.  You need to go to the 3.7i with its full length true ribbon to get the real Maggie magic.  And have a high current amp with whatever technology you like...as long as it is not harsh or edgy...the ribbons won't hide that!  That said, 1.7is are tall enough that most listeners can enjoy them seated and stay "in the window" comfortably...for 1/3 the cost.

dynamiclinearity, you are close but not quite. LINE sources fall off at 6 dB/oct vs 3 dB/oct. The 3.7i's switch to point source behavior from about 250 hz and under. So, from the lower midrange down they are point sources. This is why Maggies tend to get bright as you move away from them. In order to radiate as a line source a speaker has to taller than the longest wavelength it is to reproduce. 20 hz is 32 feet. Fortunately physics comes to the rescue. If both ends of the line source end at boundaries Like the floor and the ceiling the line source effectively goes on into infinity or performs as such down to zero Hz. This is the reason for 8 and 9 foot speakers, the most common ceiling heights. Magneplanar had discussed making 8 foot 20.7s but the marketing guys talked them out of it. They said it would never sell. The people who buy 20,7s are seriously interested in sound. Having superior bass performance would have been an EASY sell. It is the 7 footers that would have been languishing. Go figure. 

To mention Tektons and Magnepans in the same breath is a serious insult to the Magneplanar corporation.

twodoplphins, you are not the only person here with that opinion. As for 99.97% perfect? Maybe 99.95%. Really, it depends on how much you really cherish sub bass and how loud you want to go. If you want to crack the foundation with Nine Inch Nails then you will have to add subwoofers which IMHO should be added anyway to get the last word in perfection out of them. On their own I would say 90% perfect. With the right subwoofer system, 100% perfect. I have never heard another speaker perform at this level. Many would say, "Well of course! You own them." But, I would respond by saying that is why I bought them. 
As for Tube amplifiers, there are many who have said the ultimate amp for driving SLs is the Atma-Sphere MA2. I hope to hear that combo at some point. Other tube amps? I am not so sure. I do know that high powered SS amps can do an excellent job. The JC 1's are a very popular amp with the SLs which are what I am using currently. As Ralph has pointed out on numerous occasions Stats have a rising impedance in the bass and by 20 Hz can be up to 30 ohms which robs power from SS amps so you really need a big bruiser to start with. This is not a problem for the Atma- Sphere amps which put out the same power regardless of impedance. In relative terms the 220 watt MA2 is more equivalent to a 600 watt SS amp driving SLs.

Somehow I missed the stats/ planar/ panel ribbon speakers all these past 20 years.
Just did, out of lack of understanding what they were all about.
And hard to know what was hype and what was truth.
As you guys know so well, there is alot of hype involved with  speaker reviews/opinions.
Seems most seasoned audiophiles place planar/stats/tall ribbons as **The Golden Benchmark** as a  standard for comparison.
So if someone says, **WOW these box speakers are really something**, 
WEll they should be judged  next to either a  massive expensive horn system, or a  planar/ribbon/stat.

We need a  standard,
Since horns  are not as acessible, based on so mahy limitations. budget being the  principle reason why we can't all owna  big horn system. That leaves these Stats/panels/tall ribbons as ~~THe Reference  Point~~~

I'll be very happy with the Little Ribbon Speaker.
Will be a  sheer joy and pleasure to finally hear my classical with rich, dynamic, deep soundstage,, Not sure if I can add **Wide** as we know these type designs have a certain sweet spot.
Which was once a issue with me, now means absoluetly nothing.
The only other limitation to using some of the larger panel speakers is quality of high power amplification.
Bottom line is, for under $1G,  there really is no other speaker on the market that can compete with the Little Ribbon Speaker.
Its a  great way for newbies to jump into this hifi hobby w/o breaking the bank.  And end up witha  speaker that will be of lasting value (no need to upgrade/flip) for many years to come.
= No big disappointments,, (Such as we've all had with box designs). 
Listeners fatigue comes from the speakers. 
The speaker that has the least amount of coloration/distortion which is  none other than ~~listening fatigue~~~ wins the shootout.
I asked this Q some 20 yrs ago, here on Audiogon, **Speaker shootout at the OK Corral***. 
I walked away not learning much, with my preconceived notions.

2 things  I did note from that topic was that stas/planars, need big clean power and that tiny sweet spot.
So I looked elsewhere, back to box, and the SEas Thors. 
Now i am more awake and realize it is the panels which will be most ideal, if not ~~perfect~~ to draw me into classical music, especially big symphony passages in full bloom.

Maybe later on, I'll  go up a notch to a  larger panel.
Right now I just want to get the Little Ribbon and settle in , after some recent experiementaion disasters..
The only good thing in the Thor upgarde was keeping the new Mundorf 10uf in the bass  xover which gives the W18's, a   nice kick in bass,  which some may find a  bit soft, but better that before with the old Hovalnd caps.
Thats all I really needed to do, was swap of the caps in the bass , get rid of the Millennium and add this Little Ribbon Speaker,
I'd be far ahead  of the game, had I listened to what my tech geek was saying,,~~I LOVE my maggies~~~.
I was not listening. 
His Maggies are big, like 4 panels and uses a  big amp. Out my league.
I'll report back when they arrive in some weeks,,,,if I can find the cash soon enough before they are sold. ...
Planars, sets ~~Some Standards~~~  I refrain from ~~THE~~, but at least some, = midrange etc etc,,= dang near THE Golden Standard in speaker  evaluations.
Newbies take note, 
~~Ban the hype~~~