Which speaker has the biggest sound stage?

In a large enough room with enough open space behind, larger mbls, 111 or 101 have the biggest that is also very accurately defined as well that I have heard recently.

Omnidirectional speakers in general are capable of delivering the biggest sound stage that is also very well defined, but only when placed properly in suitably large rooms.

OHM Walsh speakers are pseudo-omni and physically attenuated in the wall facing directions by design in order to allow them to function better in most people's rooms. That limits soundstage depth somewhat but works out better in the end for most.

You can custom order them to be fully omni, at least up to 8Kzh or so, the range of the Walsh style driver used. I would expect this to deepen the soundstage potential if set up suitably in a suitable room, but have never tried this.

Bipolar speakers like Maggies also emit a lot of sound to the rear of the speaker. In a suitable setup in the right room, these also can have a very large and deep soundstage.

I am with Elizabeth on this one, both in terms of the glue as well as other (minorO issues with Maggies. If a former/current dealer or repair center says it never happens, yet one sees it regularly on used speakers for sale, then . . .

Oh and by the way, certain types of driver surrounds do rot. Martin Logan panels should be replaced about every 8-12 years, it is a pretty easy job to do oneself and does make a huge difference.

And yes, Maggies, like Tube amps and tube components may need a little extra life-time maintenance versus "some other" products.

But that should not rule them out as a great product. After all, one doesn't hear of too many Ferrari owners complaining about rebuilding their motors every 5,000-10,000 miles.

Its pretty well known that the older Maggies had problems with the glue that held the voice coil to the diaphram. Apparently it was sensitive to UV; if left in a room that had direct light it would break down over the years. If your room had no sunlight exposure you may not have run into problems.

One of my employees was part-time and also worked at Magnaplanar. He mentioned this issue to us at least once.

A friend of mine who works at ARC ran into this in a set of older Tympanis that he wanted to rebuild. Magnaplaner redid the voice coils for him.

So the problem was real. To my understanding they switched glues a few times but I understand that they did solve it. I do not know when exactly but if memory serves sometime in the last 10-12 years or so.

.... i dunno, but i'm on pins and needles waiting for the final determination on whether or not there is a glue issue with those Maggies (please, enough already with the irrelevant thread-crapping!).

..........

in my experience i have found that typically, the room and placement in said room factor in probably as much as the speakers do. one exception would be the AR MGC-1's, which create a much bigger soundstage than one would expect, even on a short wall spaced relatively close together.

others i have heard that were notable for creating a large (and believable) soundstage are the Allison I, Maggies as noted above, JBL L300 and a large pair of Snell's the model i do not know. the common link with all these speakers is size.

As far as the biggest soundstage...I would say that omni-directional speakers are the champs of this realm. The MBLs are truly amazing, and my Mirage OMD-28s create a soundstage that is massive. They won't be laser focused like the Gallos, but sound beautiful.

Let us know what you decide on. :-)
Mot