I can relate so much to what Duke has shared here. I owned Maggies for nearly 6 years, first the 3.3 and then 3.5. The tonality and dimensionality of the music is what won me over compared to box speakers. But the need to crank it up to get the system to boogie was the ultimate downfall of the Maggies for me.
The Maggies are such incredible performers. Even with people throwing huge SS amps at them, I only heard the Maggie magic with tube amps. There is so much focus here on power to drive Maggies but I had enough experiences with these speakers to know that this was only part of what it takes to get these speakers to perform.
The price of the Maggies is a great deal but you have to spend a lot for amps to do them right. This makes for an expensive setup for someone who would think they could get the same sound they heard at the dealer but with a less quality/expensive amp. Unfortunately, it's just not that easy with these speakers.
I heard several Martin Logans, "full-range" and hybrids, at a dealer vs. the Maggie 3.5 and everytime, I found myself back at the Maggies. The ML's were just too analytical for me vs. the full and rich Maggie sound. The Maggies filled the space between them like nothing I had heard before. It was so impressive. And they were easily 12' apart at the dealer. The ML's did have an incredible see-through quality that clearly showed the Maggies' mediocre resolving abilities.
The Sound-Lab speakers are a different beast altogether. The A, M and U series are awesome. They do bass like the Maggies could never come close. And the same is true for low-level resolution and dynamics (wooo hooo). In my room, the Maggies had a sweet spot of a couple feet wide. With the Sound-Lab A1s, the sweet spot is across the room. I never could have imagined another speaker having the Maggie magic without giving up something else. The Sound-Lab convey the 3-dimensionality and decays like the Maggies but without the emphasis in the mids that gave the Maggies that overly-rich sound. The Sound-Lab really converted this long-time Maggie fanatic.
And as tough as some people may claim the Sound-Lab might be for an amp to drive and control, they appear to be less demanding of an amp than the Maggies. I play the music much lower now as I don't feel the need to crank it up to compensate for lack of dynamic contrasts. Truly impressive.....but so are the Maggies.
So there's my experience with Maggies vs. some Electrostatics.
John
The Maggies are such incredible performers. Even with people throwing huge SS amps at them, I only heard the Maggie magic with tube amps. There is so much focus here on power to drive Maggies but I had enough experiences with these speakers to know that this was only part of what it takes to get these speakers to perform.
The price of the Maggies is a great deal but you have to spend a lot for amps to do them right. This makes for an expensive setup for someone who would think they could get the same sound they heard at the dealer but with a less quality/expensive amp. Unfortunately, it's just not that easy with these speakers.
I heard several Martin Logans, "full-range" and hybrids, at a dealer vs. the Maggie 3.5 and everytime, I found myself back at the Maggies. The ML's were just too analytical for me vs. the full and rich Maggie sound. The Maggies filled the space between them like nothing I had heard before. It was so impressive. And they were easily 12' apart at the dealer. The ML's did have an incredible see-through quality that clearly showed the Maggies' mediocre resolving abilities.
The Sound-Lab speakers are a different beast altogether. The A, M and U series are awesome. They do bass like the Maggies could never come close. And the same is true for low-level resolution and dynamics (wooo hooo). In my room, the Maggies had a sweet spot of a couple feet wide. With the Sound-Lab A1s, the sweet spot is across the room. I never could have imagined another speaker having the Maggie magic without giving up something else. The Sound-Lab convey the 3-dimensionality and decays like the Maggies but without the emphasis in the mids that gave the Maggies that overly-rich sound. The Sound-Lab really converted this long-time Maggie fanatic.
And as tough as some people may claim the Sound-Lab might be for an amp to drive and control, they appear to be less demanding of an amp than the Maggies. I play the music much lower now as I don't feel the need to crank it up to compensate for lack of dynamic contrasts. Truly impressive.....but so are the Maggies.
So there's my experience with Maggies vs. some Electrostatics.
John