New Maggie 3.6 OR 10 yr old Sound lab A-1 s

I would go with the 3.6's. OFC I have lived with a pair for over 2 years, and I love the Maggies!

Always remember that speakers have moving parts. Stuff with moving parts wears down, so after 10 years... Who knows how much life the A-1's have in them? And can they be reconditioned? and for how much? Does anyone service them? (I do not know any of these answers... just questions one must ask themselves before laying down good money on any older speaker) At least with the Maggies you know what you are getting: one world class speaker with a warranty.

See my system on the virtual systems here at audiogon.

Tok20000
aka Keith

If the Sound Labs are in excellent condition, they will do some things the Maggies won't do. I've only heard the big Sound Labs with the new toroidal transformer - without it, I'm not certain of how they would compare. But the Sound Labs have always been praised for their timbre and resoltion.

I have owned several Maggies, and I own and sell Sound Labs. Both are excellent loudspeakers. I've compared the 3.6's to Sound Lab M-1's (sonically the equivalent of modern A-1's) side-by-side. The Maggies were actually a bit more efficient. But I kept wanting to turn the volume up on the Maggies to hear the details that were so readily audible on the Sound Labs (actually, Sound Labs are extremely enjoyable even at quite low volume levels). Their tonal balances are similar, but the Sound Labs naturally go deeper (they're twice the size). You know how the 3.6's have a wonderfully lifelike presentation that "feels" vastly different from a box speaker? Well, the big Sound Labs can give you even more of that.

Just for the record, if there wasn't a local Maggie dealership already, I'd love to pick up the line. I think Maggies are wonderful. However, electrostatics seem to have greater ultimate potential than ribbons or planar magnetics.

The most dangerous time in the life of a Sound Lab speaker is when it is being shipped. Many if not most problems can be traced to not shipping the speakers in factory crates. Please factor this in! You may need to buy factory crates.

If you can find out the serial numbers on the Sound Labs and e-mail them to me, I'll find out as much as I can for you about them. But the factory won't be open again until Monday - hopefully you can wait that long.

Hope this helps!

Telescope trade,

Modern M-1's may beat Maggie 3.6's soundwise... but the M-1 is a new $14k speaker and the Maggie is a new $4k speaker. If I could afford $14k on a speaker the Sound Labs speakers might be perfect.

I have never heard the Sound Labs A-1 or M-1, however, equating the two soundwise seems problematic since they are 10 years apart in age. Speaker design may have not jumped leaps and bounds in 10 years, but rest assured, the Maggies they make today: 3.6's and 1.6's and other lines, sound better than the lines Maggie sold 10 years ago. I really hope the same can be said for Sound Labs speakers, else they probably will have trouble competing with other speaker companies who do advance their technology forward.

The Maggie 3.6's are seriously better than the 3.5's,and I hope the M-1's are seriously better than the A-1's.

This and $.50 will get you a cheap cup of coffee.

Just food for thought.