Planar to dynamic, dynamic to planar, or ...

As I have mentioned before, I can swing from planar to cone in the middle of a music selection simply by changing the crossover frequency between my cones (a subwoofer system capable of up to 400 Hz) and my Maggies. (If one used a full range cone speaker system, with mid and tweeter, you could run the cones all the way up).

Although I am a planar fan, I do admit that some kinds of music, most notably organ played at high volume, sounds best with cones. By the way, I also think that horn midrange and tweeter are best for horn instruments like trumpet, but I haven't yet got arount to installing switchable horn drivers.

Every time I hear cones again, I hear that bthunk, pting of exagerrated leading edges and I kind of miss it.

I'd be interested to hear from open baffle speaker owners and how the fact that planars are dipoles figures into much of the pleasure you get from the planar sound. Is that open natural presentation that I could get from my old Maggies due more to the rear wave than the ribbon itself. If so, then open baffle cone designs such as Orions or Alons would get the best of both worlds, dynamics and the holographic imaging. I went from Magnepans to Merlins. I purposely chose Merlins because they present an amazingly deep soundstage and are capable of disappearing as well as any planar I've heard. Although the Merlins have many advantages over the Maggies, and not just in terms of dynamics, but balance and cohesion as well, there is still something I miss about the Maggies. The comparison I use is that both speakers are like windows looking out over beautiful sceneary (take you pick--mountains or beaches). Both offer a clean pristine view. The Merlin window, with better lower level detail, may even offer a clearer view of the world. Nonetheless, its like the Maggie window is open just a crack and you can "feel" the mountain air as you watch the eagle fly. It could be just a matter of taste, however, and the fact that I find the mountain air so intoxicating.

I'm a back and forth fan. I have a pair of Maggie 1.6's and a pair of Aerial 6's. The Aerials are dead on musically, and I've never heard anything image like they do. THey are small, and don't really care where you put them.

The maggies don't image as well, and it's hard to get used to the taaaalll soundstage, but if you're not into critical listening, nothing fills an apartment with music like a pair of maggies.

cone or horn designs have a coloration i don't like. there have been a few exceptions, such as an early gradient, aerial 10t, esp bhodran and maybe a proac response 3. however, i suspect that after a period of time, i would tire of those cone designs.

once you have listened to the quad esl, it is not possible to listen to conces too long.

by the way, ribbons and planar magnetic speakers sound different than electrostatics. i prefer electrostatic--full range, but the occasional panel replacement drives me nuts.

currently i have maggies, but i miss the esls.