maggie replacement

[morgispop]

Hey Gang, could use some true advice here. I am a long time Maggie owner and lover(10+ yrs), but I have just moved into a small condo and I am having trouble being content with my current set-up and have begun the search for smaller replacements. I have always read good things about the Acend products. Let me preface this by saying I have from time to time brought in poential replacements that did not satisfy me. Sonus Faber Concertos were probably the closest to doing it. Def tech powered monitors, Mirage OM6, Polk(various towers), JBL S-38 all fell way short. I went from a 26x14 Living room to a 12x11 space so I just do not have the breathing room anymore. This is a HT/audio setup. I rarely just listen critically to music anymore but I do enjoy the fact that just walking around and listening, the maggies portray such a natural sound. When I'm in an adjacent room(pretty open floor plan), a jazz trio still sounds like a jazz trio that hapens to be playing in another room. Does that make sense? I use a panny xr-25, jbl center/surrounds and Mirage bp-400 sub. The panny really does a fine job until the volume is extremely cranked-then it hardens. People have to realize that the pannies can handle the low loads from maggies becaue they barely go below 4 ohms. It is a totaly resistive load that just does not dip, unlike a ML which can drop to 1.5 or so. I am sure a quartet of 170s or 340s will give me a much better HT experience than currently, especially with my space, but will I still get that same sense of realistics tone and harmonics when casually listening to music if I retire the maggies. The space savings will be incredible. I know this was long, but I appreciate any advice.
D

[Quinn]

Where do you live? Have you tried the Frapper map to see if someone will let you listen to their's?

I personally think that the Ascend sound is very natural but I can't make that call for you.

[morgispop]

Just moved to Chicago. I will keep checking for somebody local to me.
Thanks. I really have a gut instinct that they are going to be excellent for a cone style speaker and wil suit my needs fine.
D

[GirgleMirt]

Hmmm... Maggies really do have their own sound, which maggies do you have? Tone: The Ascends are hard to beat for tone fidelity, I'm not 100% sure for the tone of the maggies, I know they're PITA to measure, but generally, do they have a very even FR?

Not entirely sure what you mean by harmonics. The maggies have a sort of transparency which seems to be hard to replicate with dynamic loudspeakers.... Dynamic have a lot more punch. Can you describe exactly what you meant by harmonics? Its been a long time since I've listened to Maggies, but I remeber their sound being almost holographic, dynamic speakers are more visceral in comparison... What did you not like on the SF Concertos?

When I'm in an adjacent room(pretty open floor plan), a jazz trio still sounds like a jazz trio that hapens to be playing in another room. Does that make sense? Not really, people usually judge how a speaker sound in the same room that the speakers are in. I've seen some comment on how realistic some speakers sounded from another room, but maybe I'm weird, but that really never bothered me in the least! :p As the smaller magneplanars have limited bass response, I don't see how that could be the case anyhow....

Can you give us more concrete examples of what you found the dynamic loudspeakers you tried lacking? You talk about natural... I found planar speakers to sound less natural than dynamic speakers.... Magnepans I heard almost had an ethereal sound... Not what I'd call the most natural...

[morgispop]

I guess my reluctance to embrace dynamic speakers is hard to put into words. I agree fully that the maggies do not provide the visceral "punch" that many cone speakers do quite easily and there is quite a bit of music that I come across that could use a bit more of this that the mags can't provide. This is of course amplified music. I do listen to quite a bit of live music from acoustic guitar to jazz ensembles and when I listen to the like recordings of this, there really is no need for the "punch" because there isn't any punch to begin with. Just sound, and that is what the maggies do so well. Reproduce that open natural sound coming from an instrument/voice. Drums are, of course, a natural exception.
An easy test for me is to play a basic acoustic(solo if possible) recording in mono through only one speaker and compare that to one maggie, level matched. Then just walk around that one speaker. The maggie just does better by me. Very little change 360 degrees. Even the bipolar def tech/mirage don't fair as well. So I guess that's what I mean by more natural sounding. They just exude sound, not reproduce sound with a cone.
Now, as far as reproducing the event, such as the original recorded space, I think dynamic speakers do better and in that sense are more accurate. The maggies just sort of force whatever recording is playing to be more in your room than in the original space. That being indicative of the comment that they do have a sound. Indeed they do.
I do think I am going to give the 170 a fair try and tuck away some of my plain stubborness. I can always go back when my space constraints subside.
I am assuming the 170 is my best bet as opposed the the 200 or 340?
Thanks
D