My 645's are so good that I sold my Magnepan 1.6's. Sean, I'm in disagreement with your opinion about audioreview.com. While there can be some definite grade inflation by owners justifying their purchases, I think that it is hard to argue with the 39 out of 39 perfect scores the 645's received (I will note that they have received a few baseless 1 stars that have been edited by the site [a potential discussion for a later topic]). Also, I was rather taken with the high quality of equipment many 645 owners had. I like to use professional reviews and consumer reviews to narrow down my choices for the ultimate review -- one's own ears. Newforms will not be beat on driver quality for price by any speaker sold through a dealer. The 645 has two Scanspeak 8545's per speaker which equate to roughly $600 in cost per pair. I believe that the ribbons would wholesale for over $600 as well, so I don't quite understand how John Meyer makes any money, but that is our windfall. The suckers weigh almost 125 pounds each! As to the 645's sound, they are more similar to the Maggie 1.6's than different -- I would some up their sound as Maggies with balls. Both are ridiculously good value for the money. Newform allows for a 30 day "no questions" return policy which takes the risk out of it. I'm obviously a very happy "real" owner. Email me if you have any further questions, or better yet, John at Newform.
