MG 20.1 or Wisdom audio m-75

Shaman, if I had to choose between the two I'd probably pick the Maggies, for several reasons. While they're power hungry and more or less require biamping in order to perform their best, they have a few things going for them. They are dipole planars with ribbon tweeters instead of monopole ribbons with cone woofers in separate cabinets, which in practice enables them to integrate better and reproduce the reverberant sound field. The Wisdom crossover can be tricky to set up, with thousands of possible settings. As Tireguy suggests, there are possible modifications to the Maggies that may improve things, although the scope of what's involved isn't clear. I imagine most 20.1 owners use them in stock form.

With either speaker it's a good idea to use the same amps on top and bottom if feasible. I've heard Wisdoms driven by two pairs of Parasound JC-1s and Maggie 20.1s driven by a single pair of JC-1s...I would probably prefer the Maggies with single JC-1s, and biamping with two pairs would be preferred. That said, the Wisdoms can produce very good bass impact and probably go deeper than the Maggies, as well as being capable of being played louder. And while the Wisdoms are more dynamic sounding than the Maggies, the energy density on the Wisdom's ribbon drivers is much greater than on the Maggie planar magnetics and ribbon tweeters. The result of the higher energy density is increased punch with less detail and air, while listening fatigue may be increased.

All of that said (red flags raised as I put on the scarlet letter "D" as a Sound Lab dealer), it was a treat to come home to listen to big Sound Labs, driven by a single pair of JC-1s (which, surprise, I also sell). Not that either of the other two speakers don't do things the Sound Labs don't, but it's a matter of preference after many years of listening to recorded and live music and occasionally performing. They happen to work well in a variety of room sizes, due at least in part to using full range drivers in a virtual line source arrangement. There are numerous aspects to consider with any of the above, the results of which are easy to determine from listening. You might want to consider Sound Labs as well, depending upon your listening preferences.

Best wishes!

Brian

Shaman Is resell value of any concern to you? The Wisdom's seem not to hold their value well and don't sell very easily here on Audiogon for some reason?

I'm taking all this in. Would like to hear from some folks who have owned and lived with the wisdoms,they are a complex system with the crossover and all the possible settings. Harry Pearson had these for a time as his reference and in the 2000 reveiw of the M-75's he used a Krell fpb 600 on the sub's and different amps in his tests of the planar towers. It was not my understanding that running the system with dissimilar solid state amps was a problem due to the fact that the crossover could make adjustments to equal thing's out. For that matter, I have heard many enjoy solid state and tube combo's on maggies with beautiful results ? Whats up with that ?

Bin- Its clear you haven't heard the speakers modified.

I never said they were bad speakers stock, I am just telling you that you are not experiencing what the speakers are REALLY capable of without fairly involved modifications. Check with Gladstone here at audiogon- he was doubtful until he tried some improvements himself.

And I agree with Brian that most all 20.1 users are more then likely using them stock- and they have NO clue what they are missing. ¡que lastimo! :o)

They do sound good out of the box, but not in the first-rank of speakers. Modified they do. Whether they must be biamped, as Essentialaudio suggests, is another question. A rebuilt, single crossover with biwire running solely into the bass, probably comes as close to full sonic bliss as one is likely to obtain with the 20.1s. A more powerful amp than the JC-1s, however, is required for the Magnepans.