Sound Lab vs Magnepan 20.7

Which Sound Labs? In general, SL's (and ESL's in general) are more liquidly transparent and higher in resolution than Magneplanars. But a lot of people really like the ribbon tweeter in the 20.1. Maggies need to be above a certain volume threshold to "come to life", ESL's will play at lower volume better. Maggies will play louder, though, given enough power. They both have clean, non-bloated bass, but are missing the bottom octave. ESL's either without cross-overs or with a simple one can sound more seamless than the 3-way Maggies. They're both great with vocals, and present large, life-size images.

Based on what I heard this past weekend at T.H.E. Show in Irvine, CA, there I another speaker you might want to consider. I don't know the model name or number, but it's the $20,000 Sanders ESL. You get two panels with a sub in each (175Hz x/o freq), a crossover, and power amps for the panels and woofers. They sounded really, really good---highly transparent, seemingly completely uncolored, great coherence and timing, and providing life-size images. The dealer used recordings featuring a stand-up bass, pipe organ, vocals, drumset, and varied stringed instruments. The timbre of every single one was spot on, and the dynamics were startling. The really quick "snap" of the bassists fingers pulling off a string, the string buzzing as it slammed back against the neck , the tone and resonance of the body of the bass changing as the note died away. I want to hear them again with my own source material, so I have to look up the dealer and pay him a visit.

Yep, the mating of an ESL panel and a cone woofer is definitely the Achilles heal of hybrids. Sanders uses a transmission line loading of the woofer, which is a good sign. I didn't hear a problem in the transition area, but show conditions don't allow for extended listening. I myself use Open Baffle Dipole woofers (GR Research/Rythmik) with my planars, really the best choice with panels. The 175Kz x/o of the Sanders allows for substituting subs of your own choosing if you wish. While $20,000 isn't chicken feed, it's a lot less than Wilsons/Vandersteen 7's/etc., and includes Sanders' power amps.

Roger Modjeski (Music Reference) is making an ESL speaker with a direct coupled tube power amp. He claims a substantial increase in transparency in comparison to a transformer coupled version.

True Ralph, but most serious junkies use a specific amp with a specific speaker anyway. Change one and you most likely will have to change the other. When an engineer designs a speaker/amplifier combination, he can tailor each to the other.

Clio, Modjeski is very familiar with the 57's, and makes custom amps. Give him a call (he's up in Oakland/Berkeley now, not Santa Barbara), and see what he says about making you a direct-drive OTL for your 57's. Then let us know what he says---I have a pair of 57's too!