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

Hi,

Thanks for posting your thoughts. I went ahead with the
purchase of the A-1's, as it was a time frame thing.
I called Sound Lab, and everything can be upgraded,
actually quite reasonable.
They also said if the were maintained reasonably well,
they should have another 10 yrs left before mylar
replacement is needed.

Thanks again to you all,

Bob

Congrats, Bob! I think you're gonna like your new babies!

I have a friend with fifteen year old Sound Labs (I've never actually heard his pair). He has never had a thing done to them - no upgrades, nothing. He's a much more mature human being than I am - me, I'd be wanting the latest & greatest. He is quite familiar with the latest advances - he used to work for Sound Lab, and he helps Roger West every year at the CES. Roger would update his speakers free - they are best of friends - but the man isn't interested. I have heard of even older pairs still in use. My point is, Sound Labs can last a long time, and even older models continue to sing.

For the benefit of anyone not familiar, Roger West of Sound Lab (formerly of Janszen - remember them?) designed the A-1 ("Audiophile"-1) about 20 years ago. The same basic design is still in production today - a large faceted-curve panel that radiates over a 90 degree arc. There have been incremental improvements over the years, but the basic design is the same - it wasn't Roger's first try, but when he designed the A-1 he really got it right. The M-1 ("Millennium"-1) is a relatively new development - it's essentially an A-1 with less wood trim, and a bit lower price. The U-1 ("Ultimate"-1) is an A-1 with an ultra-rigid tubular metal frame, and a higher price. For the traditionalist, the A-1 itself is still in production.

One nice thing about the Sound Labs, as Bob discovered, is that Roger West does his very best to design improvements that can be retro-fitted to older speakers, so that customers haven't just spent a pile of money on a speaker that in a couple of years will be obsolete. To put it in Maggie terms, it would be like being able to bring a 3.5 up to 3.6 standard.

Way to grab the situation, Bob! I was afraid at the bottom of the reply page I would read that you went for the Maggies. Hope you will update on the A-1's from time to time, perhaps share any significant findings. Enjoy!

good choice . the maggies although good never get 3d . the sound labs even old ones will scare you in the dark. i hope you have good tubes.

I got the chance to listen to the Soundlab Millenium 1 and the Soundlab Dynastat (a hybrid). They were driven by very expensive equipment. They sounded quite good indeed. At low volume you do get more detail with the Soundlabs versus the Maggie. However from my experience as a long time Maggie owner (1b's and IIIa's) and new owner of the 3.6. There are just some qualities Maggies present that I have not heard any other speaker present, especially in making making the speaker disappear. I have gotten rich textured 3D sound from them in spades (with good tube equipment). And when properly set up, because of their wide accurate frequency response (and I believe this is the key), You get a whole soundstage of instruments and human voice that just sound like the live performance and with natural space and dynamics that I have yet to hear from any other speaker brand, including the Soundlabs. As good as the Soundlabs were during the times I heard them , they did not give the fast, dimensional sound with space in the corners of the stage that the Maggies allow. I think that is why those who have heard the magic of the Maggie sound are so wedded to them. Even after all these years I still believe that Maggies at their best versus other great speakers at their best (such as Soundlabs) would yield a Maggie victory if you use the live performance as your yardstick. Maggies seem to win out in passing the emotion of music and with the bewilderment of presenting the three dimensionality of all the various pieces on the stage along with the fidelity and spaciousness and on top of all of that, presenting this simultaneously. They have fascinated me for 21 years (various models).

just sharing my life experiences,

Agantt