Vandy's pure and simple. I recently suffered the Maggie disease. First the MMG does not have the feel of a substantial speaker. I owned them followed by the MG12's which were a considerable improvement. I now am using Paradigm Monitor 5's and about to climb the upgrade ladder again to either Proacs or Vandy's. The best way I know of to explain it is like this. The day after I saw Cassandra Wilson in concert at a lovely intimate venue (with great acoustics) I went to one of my favorite audio stores Bradford's Home Entertainment in Eugene, Oregon and auditioned Vandy 2ce vs Maggie 1.6's. The store owner Geoff thought that Cassandra sounded better on the Maggies and indeed she souded more colorful but she didn't like Cassandra. See this is where the problem lies with Maggies. Their presentation can be so impressive that we convince ourselves that because thay have that spooky there "in the room" presence that they are more accurate. That simply is not the case. Geoff doesn't see live music very often, I do. The Vandy's sounded like listening to Cassandra live. The entire presentation was like seeing Cassandra. The richness of her voice was particlarly convincing. If you have any questions feel free to email me.
MMG or Vandersteen
Hi I have come down to two possibles and are looking for a recomendation. I am trying to find a set of new main speakers for my HT/Music setup. The choices I have come up with are Magnepan MMG's or a used set of Vandersteen 2ci's. For the around $550 which would be the better choice to go for music like Norah Jones, Patty Griffin, Dave Matthews Band, Damien Rice, ect. These will be run by a Rotel RB-980BX amp which is 4ohm stable. My CD player is an Usher CD-100. I am looking for very good Music playback for the Folk/Classical/Jazz type's of music, but also good in HT formats. What do you think?