Maggies & Logans: Why so many for sale?

I just sold my Martin Logan Sequel II's, so my ad was one of the ones you saw lately. My initial awe only lasted 15 years.

They are really good speakers. I only upgraded after I found something that really knocked my socks off, which was the Revel Ultima Studio. I really liked the Sequel II..
I upgraded to add to the power handling, as it would not play REALLY loud, especially in our new house's living room, which is half again the size of our old living room. Also, while the imaging was incredible, the sweet spot was very narrow, and now that I am married, I need to share the sweet spot.

As far as the Maggies are concerned, I was never a real fan of them, as I felt the bass was lacking, but then again, I have not seriously listened to them for a decade, so my opinion on them is biased from their old speaker line from long ago.

As a current Maggie owner, I can only presume that many of the idiosyncracies become unacceptable over time...or maybe they weren't aware of them at the time of purchase.

Don't know about M/L as I've never owned them, only auditioned, but factors like:

- very sensitive to proper room placement
- very sensitive to room interaction
- need to be farther away from back & side walls
- requires a larger room
- dialing in toe-in
- revealing of upstream weaknesses
- current hungry
- low WAF
- require stalwart amplification to yield bass
- require higher SPLs to bloom

All of these may contribute to a decision to part with big panels. However, I have heard too many stories of ex-Maggie owners kicking themselves until they jump into the water again. The gentleman I purchased my 3.5's from did exactly that.

tim

I was a Maggie 3.3 owner for a few years and then due to many issues noted by Timwat I sold these. Actually it had more to do with me not finding an amp that had enough power that I could afford AND also retain the magic of the 100w class of tube amps I had owned.

Yes they do require a bigger room as they do their magic when spaced 10' or more apart. And yes they indeed reveal problems upstream that so many other speakers mask better. And yes they have a terrible WAF. But as wonderful as the Talon Khorus that I replaced the 3.3s with, far more extension on the bottom and even more resolution throughout much of the range with the Talons, I missed the Maggie magic so much. Ultimately 6 months later, I was on the search again. Selling the 3.3s was the single biggest mistake I ever made in selling/buying audio in 20+ years.

Finally I found a pair of 3.5s and I am once again a happy listener. The Talons went into the HT system. The Talons were a huge improvement over the Theil 3.6s and 2.3s in that system. And the Thiels are excellent speakers as well. But the Thiels do not come close to the Talons in the more lifelike and dynamic presentation. And neither of these bring on the incredible ambience, presence and bloom of the Maggies. There's always a tradeoff. If I had to do the music and HT in one system, the Talons would be the better choice due to the dynamics alone.

One thing that is absolute nonsense is that Maggies do not integrate well with subwoofers. I use a Velodyne ULD18, crossed over at 50hz. This is really what the Dr ordered for the low end punch lacking with the Maggies. I hope to soon tweak the input of the amp (Counterpoint NPS400) to high pass this at 40-50hz to give the amp even more head room with the Maggies.

And yes, when I told my wife I was buying these again, all she could say was, "those again?", in a not so positive manner. So clearly for many they are not beautiful sculptures of art like so many other speakers are out there.

In regards to maggies- I don't see many current production speakers for sale. 1.6's here and there but they go quick, 3.6's are a rare and draw a premium on the used market. Mostly older models, and if these folks are capable of going to newer models I am sure that's what they do. Once you've gone planer its hard to go back ;)