Broken hearted...magnepan and vandersteen

Richard Vandersteen has spent his whole professional life perfecting use of first-order crossovers to get exactly that unmistakeably musical voicing out of his designs. I had (still have/in storage) his flagship model from the 1980s, the Vandersteen 4s. I heard plenty of other speakers (a few in my home, many @dealers), but these were the ones that most approximated real, live music. Everything sounded so "right," so realistic.

Yes, first-order crossovers trade that last lick of ultimate dynamics & punch; and yes, they force drivers to work hard near their band-limits. But he chooses drivers & crossover points that work best with those cross-overs, and the man obviously knows what he's doing. 

IMO it's lunacy to form a grudge against this or that design based on some theoretical prejudice. 

I love mcreyn's comment .... I don't claim to be an expert on why a speaker is or isn't great, but you can't argue with success, that includes respect from the industry itself, not only music critics, which we all know, are like opinions ... you know the saying. So when I read comments that say someone, like Richard Vandersteen, is doing it "wrong", I have to wonder.

kenjit,

You should let Richard Vandersteen know that he has been doing it all wrong for the lasts 40 years and several hundred thousand pairs of speakers. Maybe you can show him how to design a proper cross-over while you are at it as well as what he is doing wrong in designing his drivers.

Right on desktopguy!

Let's hope Dennis Murphy has a speedy recovery.

Maggies sound good on Pink Floyd.  May speakers separate the instruments in space much better.