Replacement for Maggie's?

To me the decision to stick with Maggies or not revolves largely around the types of music listened to and how important associated macrodynamics are to you.

Macrodynamics, punch, meat on the bones, or whatever you want to call it matter most with pop/rock music, and larger scale classical and jazz works.

This is where planars in general are challenged to pressurize the air in the room to the level that good dynamic speakers can.

The other issue with Maggies is that they are very sensitive to placement within the room, usually needing to be placed well out into the room away from the rear wall, and doing that optimally may not be practical in some cases.

Those are the big decision points that I have experienced with Maggies in the past. I owned a pair for almost 20 years but eventually had to switch for the reasons related.

Mapman, good comments, although I take a different view in some respects. You are absolutely correct in pointing out that music preference plays a huge role in deciding how to go. However, I chose maggies precisely because of the fact that I listen to a lot of large scale orchestral works. While the Maggies may struggle a bit at 105 dB peaks, I could not find a dynamic speaker for under 30K that could through a big enough sound stage to work.

If you really like the basic sound of the 1.6, but, cannot move up in size to the 3.7, I take it that getting a subwoofer would also be problematic. That probably means you are looking for a small system with the sound of a dipole speaker. Perhaps an electrostatic/dynamic woofer hybrid would fit the bill. Martin Logan makes such systems, and to me, much better still, would be speakers from Sanders Sound. These are not small in size, but, they are considerably less imposing in looks than maggies.

Brownsfan,

That's a good point. I've heard larger current Maggies do larger scale orchestral music quite well for the reasons you cite in a small to moderate size room running off larger ARC tube amplification. I had few issues with most classical as well when I owned Maggies. More so with pop/rock and even big band to a lesser extent.

With the exception of the larger Apogee planar speakers or arguably one of the hybrid models, most dipole speakers simply can't provide the same bass slam as a cone driver.

If you can't upgrade to the larger Maggies due to the WAF, then the Apogee route is probably not an option unless you can find a pair of Cepheus 6s. Try before you buy.

I like the subwoofer idea. It shouldn't be hard to integrate a downward firing sub (or pair, if you have the space). If your floor is wood or concrete, you'll be good to go. If carpet, place some wood floor tiles or (better) a stone or granite tile under the sub.

Finally, if you are determined to replace your Maggies wth something new and with a similar (dipole) sound, I would suggest that you look at the DECware ERR or maybe even the Ohm speakers.