Magnepan or Carver???

Thanks for helping folks!

I went with maggie 3.6's, found a local pair that I scooped up. They were a lot cheaper than the 3.7's, I could have bought 2 pair of them for the price of the 3.7's! Great Deal! and the 3.7's will not biamp without major mods! Sheesh!

I have a lot of Klipsch, maybe it's time I had a sale? I still have a pair of La Scalas in my living room, I moved one pair downstairs already. I do love Klipsch on certain lower powered amps, you know the ones, but they're not makin' bacon quite like my Maggies are, but I have no issues with Klipsch... they cost less than Magnepan for a reason, though!

I love my maggies. Just love them. They are the best thing I've ever purchased!

I bought a pair of Audio Research VT-150's to power them, it's running off my sp22 ARC Preamp, which had Balanced Outputs, which the amps needed.

The whole shebang is connected with Verastarr cabling, which I have found to be excellent!

I a/b'd a TON of amps, preamps, and cables before I made my decisions...

I love the Audio Research sound, the presentation is so sublime! Is this as good as it gets? All I need now is a good tube output stage CD player...

Kevvwill, "Carver Amazings, which are still the best speaker I have ever heard."

I once had that experience as well with the Amazings. Heard the ALIII, but they really didn't make an impression on me.

If that is the choice, go with the Magnepans. I had some (sob!) Carver Amazings, which are still the best speaker I have ever heard. The ALIII's weren't. They weren't even in the same family, tonally. Which was weird, when you think about it. Anyhow ....

And to echo the comments of others, power. You don't say what amplifier you have driving the Klipsch speakers, but I will tell you that the Amazings didn't sound truly great until I hooked up some major power to them. The same was true with all the Maggies that I had, back in the day.

I had a pair of the Carver ALIII's , there were OK to me, although I never got them to sound special like the pair of Apogees I have now - there was a disconnect with the bass also (small bass driver) they dont go very low either... the 3.5's are big speakers and have a big sound - they dont really compare to the Carvers - i would take the Magnepans everytime.

drumhead makes a really good point--you need a ton of power for either the maggies or the carver. another consideration is that many people (myself included) feel the maggies need a sub or two (they don't go as deep as the carvers). yet another consideration is that placement is extremely critical to both. all that said, if you're up for the challenge and you've got the $$, i'd pop for the 3.6 maggies, which really do sound great under optimal conditions.

You're moving from a very high sensitivity speaker - Klipsch- to a very low sensitivity speaker - Maggie.
Is your amp up to the challenge? You may not like what you hear and it's not the speakers fault.

I would go Magnepan simply because I never have heard anyone praise those Carver speakers. To me the silence says alot.