QUAD vs Martin Logan vs Magnepan


Probably a turn-off to most readers, it's one of those 'how long is a piece of string' type questions. But here goes...
To those of you with experience of 2 or more of the above company's modern speaker products, which have you found to be the more persuasive speaker. In other words which is best. I realise Magnepan & ML have an extensive range of speakers but I guess my question is aimed at which evermodel they put out to compete with the Quad (ESL 989?)

My reasoning is simple, it's difficult to find a dealer where I live who would have any of the above never mind all three to do a 'shootout'. I have recently joined the ranks of Maggie owners with the MMG's which I'm impressed with - but I'm just curious to see how good things can get if you start to spend a few more $$$
safoxda10

Showing 2 responses by newbee

You have to decide what kind of sound staging you want before you choose one of these speakers over the other, especially the Quad vs any panel. The are very different!
If you want a high resolution point source speaker other than a more conventional cone design, Quad is your only choice (at least that I have listened to).

FWIW, and its probably not much (!) I have listened to Maggies and ML's and while both can be impressive neither are point sources which is my personal sonic preference. Of those two I found the Maggies to have a somewhat warmer tone than the ML's but I prefer the sound of the electrostat panel in the ML to the Ribbon in the Maggie. Conversely the Maggies bass is more of one piece with the rest of the speaker than the box sub on most ML's. In fact some of the best bass I have ever heard was from Magnepan panels. As I said, FWIW.
You can do this with well set up 'box' speakers as well as panels and electrostats. In fact the first time I heard this holographic effect was with a small pair of Thiel 04's (box 2 way floorstanders) driven by a Threshold class A amp, a Conrad Johnson tube pre-amp and a TT (I forget the make etc) playing an LP of Depth of Image by Opus Three - about 25 years ago! You felt you could walk in amoungst the musicians.

Its far more about set up (including room treatments if necessary) than speaker type. And its not particularily easy to get holographic imaging with panel speakers or Quads either although these speakers can sound more atmospheric with less effort because of the back wave from the speaker, which is not to say they are easy to set up. Quite to the contrary, for what goes as excellent sound its much easier to set up appropriate box speakers.

As with other things in this hobby its all about some sort of trade offs, but I've always found that careful attention to matching speakers to room size then proper set up is FAR FAR more important than speaker type or electronics. You can get excellent sound with well selected but ordinary stuff if you can match up the components and perfect the set up. Conversely outstanding components not matched up or not properly set up can sound like, and often do sound like, crap! JMHO of course.

Oh, BTW it goes without saying fine full range highly resolving speakers properly set up and driven can sound amazing..........