Jrodefeld,
After reading your response, I understand what you are saying. I'm not surprised, though. I could have guessed to about 80-90% of what you wrote, almost word for word. Its not that I know so much, but that I've made many of the same mistakes myself, and have watched countless others do the same.
Right now, you are putting your system together. You haven't bought anything yet so its all in your head. You're trying to get an idea as to what all this is going to sound like when you are done. Knowing your situation from reading your 2 posts, there is only 1 fact that I can tell you. I guarantee it. And that is, the system that you've put together in your head is not going to sound like the system that ends up in your listening room. It can't. You have absolutely no reference to compare anything to. You may love it or hate it.
"Could you tell me why some people "hate" them? They sound quite appealing to me and I can't imagine not being happy with them."
That's exactly what I'm talking about. Using your imagination can be a very costly thing in audio. Its best to imagine as little as possible. lol. (I put the lol in there because people don't always get my humour.). To answer your question is difficult, though. I can tell you what I didn't like about my 1.7's, but it really wouldn't do you any good. But to give some perspective, think of it this way. There's only a small handful of companies that make ribbon speakers. Magnepan is the biggest, by far. All total, the market share for these speakers is very low. I guess maybe 1 or 2%; possibly less. That means that the vast majority of high end speaker owners go with other designs. Looking at it that way, you start to see why I highly recommend you demo the speakers first. Also, don't think I'm putting Magnepan down. I'm not. Magnepan owners are some of the most loyal customers in all of audio. It wouldn't surprise me at all if you end up loving them. I just say use caution.
If you really want to get into high end audio, you may want to going a different route to start off. Maybe just get an entry level receiver or integrated amp ($300-400) and pair it with a decent small speaker in the same price range. It doesn't have to be expensive gear. Use that system to learn. Get to know things like setup, imaging and all the rest of the qualities that you read about in reviews. From there, you will be able to make much better decisions as to where you want the system to go. If you want to be successful, there's no easy way. You are going to have to learn as much as you can from your own experiences.
After reading your response, I understand what you are saying. I'm not surprised, though. I could have guessed to about 80-90% of what you wrote, almost word for word. Its not that I know so much, but that I've made many of the same mistakes myself, and have watched countless others do the same.
Right now, you are putting your system together. You haven't bought anything yet so its all in your head. You're trying to get an idea as to what all this is going to sound like when you are done. Knowing your situation from reading your 2 posts, there is only 1 fact that I can tell you. I guarantee it. And that is, the system that you've put together in your head is not going to sound like the system that ends up in your listening room. It can't. You have absolutely no reference to compare anything to. You may love it or hate it.
"Could you tell me why some people "hate" them? They sound quite appealing to me and I can't imagine not being happy with them."
That's exactly what I'm talking about. Using your imagination can be a very costly thing in audio. Its best to imagine as little as possible. lol. (I put the lol in there because people don't always get my humour.). To answer your question is difficult, though. I can tell you what I didn't like about my 1.7's, but it really wouldn't do you any good. But to give some perspective, think of it this way. There's only a small handful of companies that make ribbon speakers. Magnepan is the biggest, by far. All total, the market share for these speakers is very low. I guess maybe 1 or 2%; possibly less. That means that the vast majority of high end speaker owners go with other designs. Looking at it that way, you start to see why I highly recommend you demo the speakers first. Also, don't think I'm putting Magnepan down. I'm not. Magnepan owners are some of the most loyal customers in all of audio. It wouldn't surprise me at all if you end up loving them. I just say use caution.
If you really want to get into high end audio, you may want to going a different route to start off. Maybe just get an entry level receiver or integrated amp ($300-400) and pair it with a decent small speaker in the same price range. It doesn't have to be expensive gear. Use that system to learn. Get to know things like setup, imaging and all the rest of the qualities that you read about in reviews. From there, you will be able to make much better decisions as to where you want the system to go. If you want to be successful, there's no easy way. You are going to have to learn as much as you can from your own experiences.