Big maggies are great(I own a pair and they are one of a small hand full of speakers I would ever own) but they are not electrostat's they are planer's- similar in shape(sort of) and have some of the same sound characteristics but that's where the similarities end. If she considers them electrostat's then by all means take a good listen to the 3.6 and the 20.1(if its in your price range). I am not a huge fan of ML's they tend to lack the coherency that make an electrostat great. I think the Innersound Eros MkIII is the "budget" electrostat to beat, in the hybrid configuration that is. Soundlab's do somethings wonderfully, but if you like to listen LOUD and to extremely heavy music anything short of the U-1 or U-B1 sub will leave you wanting more. That being said if you don't listen terribly loud and don't like heavy complicated music there may be a Soundlab right for you. Even maggie's have there short comings, if your room isn't right and you don't have the right amp it just won't happen, and you can't be affraid to turn them up! The louder they get the more resolution you get, which doesn't bother me, but some people really don't like that. Soundlabs are the opposite, they get maximum resolution at around 60dB! They are capable of playing much louder but you won't get much if any more information at higher volumes.
Of course as you've noticed electrostat's and planer's have speed, transperency, imaging, coherency and image density to kill for. Yet some folks still prefer the dynamics from point source drivers, so there are always trade offs.
In other words I think your heading in the right direction and suggest adding Innersound Eros MkIII to your list, besided Roger Sanders of Innersound a great guy :)
Of course as you've noticed electrostat's and planer's have speed, transperency, imaging, coherency and image density to kill for. Yet some folks still prefer the dynamics from point source drivers, so there are always trade offs.
In other words I think your heading in the right direction and suggest adding Innersound Eros MkIII to your list, besided Roger Sanders of Innersound a great guy :)