Maggie 1.6 vs Von Schweikert VR 4

the maggies are made in minnesota. the vr4's are of dubious origin. the maggies are classics. the vr4's give a great audition. there are no 3 fingered kids working at the white bear lake facility.

Well Fellas - These are some interesting and educated responses. Your perspectives have helped quite a bit. I am especially taken by using an even more powerful amp than the 4BSST. I thought I had plenty of power. I am also intrigued by the sub suggestions. These are the two I have considered.

Hi,

My local dealer has been trying to get me to purchase the same speaker for quite some time- IMHO, for imaging nothing beats a planner. But subsonics are another story, what our local high end dealer has been doing, offering 8", 10", and 12" Velodyne subs with the maggies for the "bass" lacking customer. With the right room/crossover point, the maggies are breath taking. If I didn't have the money I have in my self built speakers, I would own what you have and a decent sub. I am presently looking at Martin Logans to clear some space and allow for a much more spacious sound that the maggies/ml's provide, yet the ML's offer this in a single package due to the addition of an actual cone woofer present. Floor space is saved and spl comes up due to the cone woofer.

Even so, if out right impact is what your after, the Von's will get you far better performance then your maggies or the Martins, but then so would any cone driver speaker of decent quality- imaging, however would suffer.

Remember, air movement is what creates the sound we humans hear, it's how this "air" is moved that creates the sound(s) we want and desire to hear as music.

who cares if 3 fingered kids make the speakers?
Child Labor ROCKS!

To me these two speakers are like apples vs oranges. Totally different approaches to design, totally differnt flavors. Each has its specific virtues and weaknesses.

The 1.6s might want highercurrent and/or more refined amps. And a fast sub like a Nola Thunderbolt would give you a lot more impact. If you haven't treated your room, fersher do that. You have a nice preamp that should be very dynamic with ample bass. There are some things than planars do well that are very hard to give up. (I had Maggies for years.) Try to audition a sub and different amps before you get on the speaker merry-go-round. The 1.6s are hard to beat for the money.

OTOH, faced with a large room and similar problems, I must confess I went back to cones 'n domes a few years ago, albeit not VRs, and the speakers I did end up with retain many of the planar-like charactaristics I liked with my 1.5s (Alons, now Nola.)

After trying amps and sub(s) with your 1.6s, if you can't get happy with them, listen around to a variety of speakers. You might also want to consider VMPS speakers with their ribbon tweaters in addition to others already mentioned.