From a price standpoint, you're looking at $5500 for a pair of Maggie 3.7s or $35,000 for a pair of Tannoy Westminster Royal SE's.
Maggies present a challenging load for amplifiers; the Tannoys practically demand a quality tube amp. They are two entirely different ways of creating an illusion of live music. I haven't heard the Tannoys, but I'm familiar with what good tubes powering high sensitivity speakers sounds like. Since I favor emotional involvement and immediacy, I have to say that if I had the coin and space I'd go for the Tannoys.
Still, to be fair pricewise, you could get a pair of Magnepan 20.1's *plus* a pair of JL F212 subwoofers (an excellent match), and although they would sound different from the Tannoys, it would certainly narrow the performance gap.
Maggies present a challenging load for amplifiers; the Tannoys practically demand a quality tube amp. They are two entirely different ways of creating an illusion of live music. I haven't heard the Tannoys, but I'm familiar with what good tubes powering high sensitivity speakers sounds like. Since I favor emotional involvement and immediacy, I have to say that if I had the coin and space I'd go for the Tannoys.
Still, to be fair pricewise, you could get a pair of Magnepan 20.1's *plus* a pair of JL F212 subwoofers (an excellent match), and although they would sound different from the Tannoys, it would certainly narrow the performance gap.