Quad ESL 989 and Maggie 3.6s

Check the build quality of Maggies. I am sure that Quad, no matter who actually owns the name now, can't do much worse. If you want Maggies do yourself a favour and buy them new from the dealer nearest you.

You know, I've considered Soundlabs -- I've only heard wonderful things about them, although I've never seen a pair.

You guys are now making me feel like I shot myself in the foot with the MC-501s! They haven't even arrived yet (but paid for and shipped) but I've been very excited. I currently have Electrocompaniet AW-220 mono blocs, which are very fine in and of themselves.

Soundlabs are sublime, well to me. Everytime I hear them I leave amazed. That said, the 989 Quad is almost the equal of the Soundlab Ultimates to me, but they are different speakers, and have different strengths. The bass from the SL's is amazing.

All that said, I have never had any problem with the build quality of the Maggies. They can be upgraded with with a better speaker stands (Mye stands are the best I have seen), and those adept at it can upgrade the crossover network. But for $4500, I don't think anything touches them. After having seen some posts on the Eminent Tech speakers I did a test drive and was impressed. At their price point, but they are not Maggies, certainly not in the same league with the 3.6R as far as dynamics, range or coherency. IMHO.

I've heard (not with my ears) and have read that the ESL-988 actually surpasses the 989, especially in the all-important midrange. They're much in price point to the 3.6rs.

Anyone familiar with them?

FWIW, from my experience in auditioning Maggies, and owning Quads (63's) the differences I heard are significant and which you prefer will depend on your expectations. The Quads are much more of a point source speaker where as the Maggies are more like typical line stages in providing an image inhanced in height and width which can be great on orchestral stuff but which can be distracting on recordings of voice and solo instruments.

Also, before you plunge forward with planers or electrostats, research thoroughly the set up issues. They are more demanding of placement and room treatment than the typical dynamic speaker. If you're not going to do this set up properly you lose the benefit of the transparency that they can bring to your music.

I prefer the sound of point source speakers and I've always liked the Quads driven by a good medium powered tube amp. I've never heard them with a Mac, but other than a Levinson ML2, I've never heard them with SS that I've really enjoyed.

The problem with the Quads in comparison to a good dynamic (box) speaker is you do lose the ability to play loud and you lose some of the dynamics (think compression) of live music. I've lived thru panels and electrostats and I'm back to good dynamic's all because I went off half cocked. Hope your experience is different. :-)