entry planar setup

You'll need a big bedroom. Maggies NEED 2 feet behind them minimum. I personally have NOT had acceptable sound from my Maggies unless I had 4 feet clearance from the wall.. If you have the room, go for it.
Many of the Maggies are bi-ampable. On the cheap, they use an X0-1 'crossover' from Magnepan. The crossover is unconventional, and must have a cap installed to match the output impedance of the treble amplifier. For me, using a modified Fisher tube amp with 32 W RMS on top is very nice. Not as good as a $1200 crossover, but the X0-1's can be had for $50. I personally do not have the real estate in my bedroom, so good luck.

Maggies like to be at least 4ft from the rear wall. A wall with some diffusion makes things better. It depends on how important the sound of your bedroom system is to you along with how much room you have to work with. Try to determine just how large a planar you can fit in your room. The MMG is the smallest. When I wanted to try planars, I bought a pair of 20 year old 2b's. I had no problem selling them when I bought 3.6's. Maggies are not that effcient, around 85db and are a constant impedance (around 4 ohms). For the best bass, they need lots of power (current?). But I have gotten very good results with a 35w tube amp. It will depend on what you like to listen to and how loud. Check out the planar forum over at Audio Asylum. There is a lot of good info there. BTW, the 2b's were the best pair of speakers that I have ever listened to for $500! Have fun....Bob D

i had a pair of MMG's in my bedroom a few years ago. They sounded great driven with a McIntosh 6100 integrated. I miss them. They were 18 inches from the wall and played great as I said.

If volume is not critical most integrated amps will do. Musical Fidelity. The E400 can be had for 400 bucks right now, There is also a mistral that might work. Anthem and Rotel are ones to check out if you want to stay under 500.

OK, so no maggies. Setup is not practical.
How about ribbon speakers?
Looking for something "different" to play with.

KP

I've heard MMG's sound quite good in an almost cubic bedroom, located about a foot and a half out into the room, with drapes behind them. So, you might not want to pull the plug on the MMG idea just yet.

The MMG's are a breeze to reposition if you need to move them out to listen and back to disappear.

And with that 60-day money back offer, basically you're only risking return shipping to find out for yourself. Can't beat that with a stick.

For amplification, if you're into quality over quantity (I assume you're not looking to disco in the bedroom), I would suggest a used Arcam integrated over either NAD or Rotel, or a perhaps a JoLida integrated for a bit warmer sound. Disclaimer - I'm a JoLida owner and dealer.

Best of luck to you, Killer!

Duke

Piglet: How about some single driver speakers for the BR? I am researching these for our living room, but a smaller room might be more appropriate. They will have recessed high and low frequencies, but otherwise should get to the heart of the music. I also am looking for something new (though the design is very old) and different. You know the forums @ which to check these out, I am certain. With a little DIY you might come up with a Killer setup. Single drivers/speakers (such as inexpensive Fostex versions) along with the right cabinet choice could be powered with a budget single ended tube amp (yet another adventure to follow your recent push/pull tube family member). Try a search of "Voigt Pipes" for an attractive and easy to build speaker with a small footprint. Also, remember the 50's Piglet/stuffy photo a while back? Well, we finally acquired the matching Pooh (I will shoot a group photo in the future -w- the most recent TT:-).

A friend has a pair of Monsoons. They sound really good.

A friend has a pair of Monsoons. They sound really good.

Piglet,

How about a pair of Martin Logan Aerius? If you want to avoid power cords you can find used Apogees on the 'net BUT ribbons sure need plenty of current to get 'em going. Think Classe, Krell, McCormack, Levinson kind of juice... I'd lean towards the ML's myself, they can be had for $1000 delivered. I have a pair in my home office, love'em. Be forewarned, once you get hooked on planars you won't have a box speaker left in any of your systems!

Thanks guys!
And yes, Dekay, I clearly remeber that photo, it was excellent!

KP