Speaker dilema? Maggies, Newforms, or Merlins


I have had Rogers LS3/5a's for 25 years with complimenting Rogers sub-woofer. I have a Lazarus hybrid amp, CJ preamp, Nakamichi CD Player 1, Van den Hul The First interconnects, and Audioquest cables.
I am looking to change speakers. I have always been mesmerized by the openess, air, detail and soundstage of planars and ribbons. However, I have loved my Rogers for years. I would appreciate feed back on the above mentioned speakers.

Thanks,

Steve
fiddler
Hi, Can't speak of the Newforms or Merlins, but I have owned several sets of Magnepans and Martin Logans. The dipole impact and speed of 'stats and planar type speakers is something that people either seem to get into and like..or find not to their liking..
That said, I feel the biggest difference between most Magnepans and the woofer box with an electrostat on top is in that low freq. area. The speed and amount of info that you get from a planar bass driver is much different than the dynamic cone.
You might want to compare an acoustic string bass, the lower end of a well recorded piano,..and some male voices, like Johnny Hartman..etc. on Magnepans vs. the others...and see where that takes you.
I recently heard a set of Newform R630's at a friend's house. As a Spendor owner, they sounded bloody poor to my ears. I was amazed how a ribbon speaker could sound so "boxy". Anyway, my friend seems to be happy with them which is all that counts.

Maggies on the other hand have always sounded remarkably open, natural and detailed.
Hi, Steve. I own newforms and am presently driving them easily with sim4070Se[80 wats rms per side]. All of the three speakers are very good...can you try any of them with your equipment first? This is where friends can really help if you know someone so you can try first....You don't want to change anything else just to buy the new speakers, do you? It is hard to say which will produce the best synergy? Perhaps none of the three....How powerful is your amp? Good luck with your quest. Cheers, Bluenose
I have no personal experience with any of these, but I know that Final has major discount available on their 0.3s right now if you want to consider another alternative. I got an email from them offering them for $1,299 through the end of this month.