No comments here on SoundLab stats so I will chime in. As stated many times on A'gon before, I was a huge Maggie fan (3.3 and 3.5) for many years until I heard the SoundLabs pretty much destroy them in every way: dynamics, low-end extension, fullness in the mids, tonal coherency, low-level resolution, image placement, the list goes on. The Maggie 20 series was not that much ahead of the 3 series.
The Maggies can be a most enjoyable speaker even with their limiting dynamics, but a transparent speaker they are not. And I ran them with ARC VT130, CL150s, Counterpoint NPS400, Wolcotts 220 and CAT JL-3 amps. Compared to ML stats, which I found way too analytical and lacking portrayal of space, the choice to go with the Maggies was an easy one.
I would agree that in the case of ML's, the midrange is thin but this is not at all the case with the SoundLab M1, A1, U1. Anybody who claims this has either not heard the SoundLab or heard them in an inappropriate system.
Denf, rather than be too quick to put stats out to pasture, I would suggest an audition of the SoundLabs. And if you want to run with tube amps, the CAT and the Atmasphere amps are outstanding performers. I run with the JL-3s and these along with the Aesthetix Io/Callisto front end results in midrange magic, decays and 3-dimensionality and dynamic contrasts like nothing I have yet heard.
The Maggies can be a most enjoyable speaker even with their limiting dynamics, but a transparent speaker they are not. And I ran them with ARC VT130, CL150s, Counterpoint NPS400, Wolcotts 220 and CAT JL-3 amps. Compared to ML stats, which I found way too analytical and lacking portrayal of space, the choice to go with the Maggies was an easy one.
I would agree that in the case of ML's, the midrange is thin but this is not at all the case with the SoundLab M1, A1, U1. Anybody who claims this has either not heard the SoundLab or heard them in an inappropriate system.
Denf, rather than be too quick to put stats out to pasture, I would suggest an audition of the SoundLabs. And if you want to run with tube amps, the CAT and the Atmasphere amps are outstanding performers. I run with the JL-3s and these along with the Aesthetix Io/Callisto front end results in midrange magic, decays and 3-dimensionality and dynamic contrasts like nothing I have yet heard.