Suggestions for Maggie replacements.

Reviewer Dick Olsher is a speaker designer, but his reviewer status gets in the way of his promoting his products. His speakers are sold under the brand "Samadhi Acoustics"; see www.blackdahlia.com.

Dick and his wife Lesley collaborated on a little speaker called the "Magic Cube". I would be a dealer for Samadhi and sell this speaker (which retails for $1395), except that you can order it factory-direct for dealer cost ($695). I would feel like I was taking advantage of people to try to charge them more than the $695 that's only a mouseclick or two away, so I don't sell 'em.

The Magic Cube excels at human voice and at creating the feeling of a live musical event.

Here is where you'll find the $695/pair factory direct price: http://store.hifiauthority.com/speakers.html.

Shriram, I think this is a speaker that can make your friend and his wife very happy.

Best wishes.

Try the Bohlender Graebener Radia X3's. They're ribbons and lightning fast, so he'll get much if not more than he got from the Maggies in terms of dynamics. They're also great looking speakers (especially in Cherry) with a more traditional footprint that the Maggies. High WAF!! List price is something like $3,000 but I bought a "new in box" pair on Ebay for $700 inclusive of shipping from Hawaii.

Take a look at the Meadowlark Kestral. You probably won't find the "hot rod" version for that price, but the "stock" version can be had in the $600 range. They're beautiful to look at (most are finished in rosewood), have a very small (WAF friendly) foot print and sound terrific.

Try the Apogee Stage (with stands). Considerably more interesting looking than the Maggies and certainly more interesting sounding. Who knows, maybe she'll like them. If not, I can certainly recommend a pair of Paradigm Studio Active 20's. They will have the warmer sound of the Maggies, are excellent on vocal material, suitably dynamic & transparent and should have a considerably high WAF as the amps are contained in the speakers. They go for about $750-850 USD here. Good luck

B&W CM-2 is a very small two way that does a pretty good job. It can't rock, like most 2-ways it's size. But the midrange and top end are good. They sold 900 new, so a used pair is going for like 600-700 I think. They haven't been out long, so you may not find a used pair.

Paradigm Studio 20 would also be another great pick. Version one or version two. Version one can be had for about 400 used. A brand new version two with out the wood grain can be had for 650. It's a very nice speaker.

You also may want to take a look (listen) to the monitor audio line.