Maggies 3.6 vs 20.1

You can get a quality active crossover for the 3.6 from this place:

http://www.magnepanstudio.de/Magneplanarstudio-uebersicht.htm

Sorry that it is in German but, email them and Mr. Schneider will respond in English. His English is excellent. The crossover is about $500 and he has been making these for several years. He is an authorized Magnepan dealer. Mr. Schneider is an astute audiophile so you don't have to worry about his implentation of parts or circuit topology in this crossover. He knows what he is doing. He is not a shyster trying to make a fast buck with some fashionable mod.

On the Eminent Technology LFT-VIII subject, I too have owned these and, they were credible speakers. The soundstage is where I had reservations. It had a constrained (or perhaps recessed) air about it. And, it was not very wide. And, the vertical dispersion stunk. But to many, these will not be issues. After all, depending on the room one may not want too much vertical dispersion. And, many audiophiles prefer a more relaxed or laid back soundstage. I happen to prefer a more vivid and immediate stage. So preferences will play a big role. In any event, as someone pointed out, the Eminents are very competitively priced at $1500 so they deserve consideration.

Those Martin Logans are more of a mixed bag for me. I like them and, I don't like them. The stunningly pure tonality of the midrange was accompanied by the glare (or beaming). The Innersound Eros does this as well. In auditioning them, they sound immediately impressive and it is easy for one to overlook the bit of glare. But living with them worries me. When it comes to electrostatics I like the Soundlabs. Their method of panel construction tends to solve the beaming and limited dispersion issues.

Sorry Chris, I truly meant no offense commenting on the ML Prodigy's. I would like to share just a few respectful comments on them regarding why I find them not to be a very good speaker. They never truly intergrated the panels with the woofers and ML panels for me have an unnature sonic signature to my ear regardless of what's driving them. All speakers have their virtues and shortcomings,including MG -20's, however the ML Prodigy's retailed for 10 grand! At this price range their shortcomings would not be acceptable to me. As far as your room being large enough for 20's, I believe it is. Unlike other posters I have never had my 20's more than 4 to 5 feet off the back wall for optimum sound and have a similar room to yours. A final bit of information that you might find helpful,I have never heard MG -20's give their best without being bi-amped. I use a Bryston x-over. I have tried other x-overs and have always gone back to the Bryston for the best performance.I just posted my system so if your interested on what electronics I use to drive them take a look. I hope that I never come across as condescending towards anyone on this great website, if I did towards you,Chris,I apologize, just trying to share my opinion in a helpful and respectful way.

My experience is I have owned the 3.6 for 2 years and heard the 20.1 at dealers and shows...I have not heard the ML products.

I think the 3.6 is one of the most complete speakers you can buy. I did spend a lot of time mod'ing the crossover and the stands (Cardas is a good source). I used them with VTL MB750 and they were great...in many ways I still miss that system.

IMHO nothing in audio is twice as good for twice the price. Frankly, it's possible that nothing in audio is twice as good as the 3.6 at any price. Having said that, the 20.1 are better. They can move more air and have a bigger more lifelike presentation. If you have the money to get 20.1 and great amps VTL, Atma Sphere etc. then go for it....if not, the 3.6 with great amps and some mods are better than the 20.1 with lesser gear. BTW I also agree that having the right size room is a must...hope this helps.

Nealhood, thanks for that tip, I hadn't seen that website before.
Germanboxers, when I rebuilt my XO's for the 3.6's I built both the internal and external XO components on one external board (per speaker). To do that I needed to bring leads direct from each of the three drivers, through the backplate and terminated each lead with a silver spade, that now connects to binding posts on the external boards. So I have almost the perfect setup for trying active XO's. Though I do need to bolt my speaker wires directly to the spades/leads coming off the drivers when I'm using the active XO, which won't look pretty! Email me if you want more info, I'm taking liberties with Cmo's thread!

Rooze

Thanks everyone for all of the thoughtful comments. Teajay, no offense taken.......... My point was only that if I was going on what I heard at my dealer, I probably wouldn't think 3.6's were that great of a speaker. Maybe the same can be said for the Prodigy's (they didn't sound so good until I got them home either)......... I have spent a lot of additional time getting things to sound the way they do now.

I am really enjoying all of the talk on moding too. If I do end up going with a set of maggies I'll probably get the bug to try to make them better, so the more I can learn in advance the better.

Thanks again everyone for the great info.

Chris