Classical music, symphony AND planar speakers


Does anyone like this combo? ie Martin Logan, Magnepan, $5 k or less?
Maybe it is the same person with a different name on several other forums that says they don’t sound good together, IDK

OTOH I have heard that solo acoustic?instruments, voices, and small groups are rendered well or with a distinct realism.
recluse
Don’t know if you have heard the Maggies. Boxless (planar) bass is very different. IMO, far more tonally accurate and lithe; it isn’t dragging a box along. To some there isn’t enough oomph and weight. I disagree; especially for Classical. That is one of the reasons that the only M L’s that I have liked are the full range electrostatics. With the hybrids, I always hear the box woofer as being in a different tonal universe. If you’re looking for electrostatic transparency look at a good pair of Quads (used?). Just some thoughts that may be of some value. Good luck.



Dipoles don't send bass off to the sides, just front to back in the room. Most rooms suffer from "head end ringing," where the bass coming off the sides of the speaker bounces up and down off the ceiling and back and forth side to side off the side walls a number of times before reaching the listener late. 

A good sealed box or tuned port woofer will not drag or sound boxy in and of itself, but it will tend to light up more room reflections and likely introduce longer bass decay times in the room, which can make bass sound slow and less clear. I've not heard dipole dynamic woofer arrays but I've heard they can keep up and blend nicely with electrostatic speakers and add some clean solid bottom end extension. I've heard Magnepan is experimenting with a woofer array of some sort and Guttenberg says it sounds great; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzPBz3SOT4A
Mark Levinson built stacked Quad 57’s with lower frequency panels. This would be worth looking for but still costly by today’s standards.