Maggies 3.6 vs 20.1

You might want to consider the Eminent Technology LFT-VIIIA.
One AudiogoNer said he had the Maggie1.6's and then auditioned
the ET's --he switched almost immediately and hasn't looked back.
I believe someone else on AudiogoN favorably compared the ET's
to the much more expensive 3.6r's.
Just a thought.

I have 3.6's, and have had the 1.6qr's as well. The 3.6 is a much better speaker in all aspects, as long as the electronics behind it match the speakers. A lot of clean power is needed.

That said, I believe the 20.1 is the finest speaker made, period, regardless of price. You need to run it with ridiculous power, such as the Innersound ESL monoblocks (800's, or the over the top KW blocks), Krell or Bryston Monoblocks, Plinius as well.

They are a much more cohernt speaker than any hybrid, they are seemless. Like any equipment, definitely take a good test run before purchasing. But you will find many people, not just me, who find the 20.1 to be the finest speaker made, regardless of price.

Good luck

Greetings,
I'm the Agoner that Sedona spoke of, the one who switched to Eminent Technology speakers from the Maggie 1.6's.
Right now I'm running twin pairs of LFT-8's with 8 channels of amplification. You can see this in my virtual system. I have recently posted commments on this setup.

It seems you have deep enough pockets if you're inquring about the 20's. Honestly, I can't say that the Eminents would challenge the 20's and 3.6's since I haven't heard them side by side. The 20's are probably in another class altogether. But we're talking a $1,500.00 speaker vs. one that's multiples more.

I did side by side at home comparison of the 1.6's and LFT-8's. I put the 1.6's up for sale two days later. The Eminents walked all over them.

I would suggest the in home trial period for the Eminents; return shipping is a small price to pay for a serious comparison, especially when you're talking some of the speakers you've mentioned. It would be interesting to see if you also feel the Eminents are a step up from the 1.6's.

One of the things which motivated me to try them was the universally high praise they garnered on audioreview.com
I have never seen a speaker get ALL 5 of 5 rating in something like 17 reviews, but the Eminents did. I concur, a solid 5 out of 5.

My impressions of the comparison were:
1.6's won in width of soundstage (but not by much), but that's about it. They are physically wider than the LFT-8's.

But as far as detail without harshness, bass presence, depth of soundstage, imaging and chanel separation, and less listening fatigue, the LFT's were superior. The are somewhat inelegant looking, but the sound is luxurious.

They are a truly unbelievable steal at under $1k used.

Teajay take it easy dude............... I happen to own ML Prodigy's and in my "educated opinion" think they sound pretty good............ In fact a lot better than the 3.6's I auditioned at my dealer. Having said that, I don't think my dealer had the Maggies set up very well and that is why I'm posting these questions and will be enquiring as to a home audition soon.

My room is aprox. 20x16x8-12 ft. high ceiling. I could probably allow around 6-7 ft. distance behind the speakers, so maybe 20's are a bit large for my room????

Thanks to everyone for the input on this. I really do like the ML's (the bass integrates in room pretty well) but just kinda have the bug to try something different.

Chris

Hey Rooze, how will you implement the DEQX? Do you just run the actively x-overed high/low through the passive x-over for the maggies or do you need to wire this directly to the individual drivers, bypassing the passive x-overs? Sorry for my ignorance...I've got 3.6's and have thought about either modding the 3.6 x-overs or possibly trying an active x-over, but really wasn't clear how to optimally work the active x-over.

Cmo...not trying to hijack your thread...Rooze just brought up something very interesting to me. I don't know how the Prodigy's sound relative to the ML ReQuests (I owned these several years back). My general impression of the 3.6's and the ReQuests are that 3.6's are less spectacular, but much more relaxed and natural to me in my room. Aside from not being happy with the woofer mating, the panel on the ReQuests seemed to have a "glare", for lack of a better word, in the midrange. Despite trying a couple of different amps, I was never able to get happy with them. I have been unimpressed with the 3.6's in dealer showrooms usually. For some reason dealers can't seem to get them setup up correctly for my tastes. I still took the plunge, feeling they had more potential and have been very happy with them in my room. They do some things amazingly well, yet don't draw attention to themselves with "spectacular" sounds...they just play music, to use an often overused cliche'.