Hi, Can't speak of the Newforms or Merlins, but I have owned several sets of Magnepans and Martin Logans. The dipole impact and speed of 'stats and planar type speakers is something that people either seem to get into and like..or find not to their liking..
That said, I feel the biggest difference between most Magnepans and the woofer box with an electrostat on top is in that low freq. area. The speed and amount of info that you get from a planar bass driver is much different than the dynamic cone.
You might want to compare an acoustic string bass, the lower end of a well recorded piano,..and some male voices, like Johnny Hartman..etc. on Magnepans vs. the others...and see where that takes you.
That said, I feel the biggest difference between most Magnepans and the woofer box with an electrostat on top is in that low freq. area. The speed and amount of info that you get from a planar bass driver is much different than the dynamic cone.
You might want to compare an acoustic string bass, the lower end of a well recorded piano,..and some male voices, like Johnny Hartman..etc. on Magnepans vs. the others...and see where that takes you.