I'm a little stumped

Bad room, lack of component synergy, lack of caring/hearing by set-up person, all of the above. It's quite easy to make any very good speaker sound bad and you probably shouldn't take that demo too seriously.

That said, the Klipsch Chorus II are very good speakers and may not be outdone (overall) by the speakers you auditioned. Certainly their dynamic capability and ability to play LOUD without distress and on few watts is unequalled by any of the above.

It wasn't until I tried the larger VMPS ribbon-hybrid speakers at about $4k, that I felt my Klipsch Chorus were surpassed by a wide enough margin to warrant their retirement. In my book that makes the Chorus a very cost-effective choice if you have the room for them. Once you get used to the dynamic capabilities of horns it's hard to go back (at least for me as I tend to value lifelike dynamics very highly).

I'd agree with Plato, Chorus would be hard to beat for the $. If your
expectations are set by a horn+tube sound I think you'd have to expect
that an Electorstatic powered by SS will sound quite different. I have a
good friend who is also a horn/tube/Klipsch audiophile. He purchased a
pair of 1.6's on a whim, as he is often prone to doing (buying gear, not
just Maggies!). He has several
nice tube amps as well as a Parasound 200 watt amp as I recall. He
came away with a similar reaction as you describe ("...what's all the
fuss about? I don't get it."). He ended up selling his 1.6's after
about a month with them.

I don't think it's a rule with electrostatics or necessarily with
Magneplanars as both can sound quite splendid indeed, but as my pal
Slappy implies, they'll sound different depending on what you pair them
off with. Also, they just may not be your taste.

On a similar note, I went over to Speakerlab, here in Seattle (nice folks
by the way), with my buddy Peter_S to take a listen to the Gallo
Reference III's (those weird-ass speakers getting great reviews that
graced Stereophiles cover not long ago). Peter's also a tube guy and the
speakers were hooked up in a room with Parasound Halo dual monos (ss
amps). So we listened for about a half an hour to different music we'd
brought and were familiar with. Though we both liked them for their
tight bass and wonderful soundstage (I should let Peter write his own
opinions...at least I think he liked those aspects of them), we both
thought the presentation with the Halo amps was sterile and analytical. I
can't imagine anyone needing the subwoofer element they offer as the
bass was plenty low and tight for my tastes, at least with the Halos. It
was perfect in an almost bland kind of way that when you look at all the
things it does well leaves me very surprised that it does not engage me
more than it did. It certainly sounded very neutral. Peter had gone there
ready to buy a pair for himself, but kept his wallet in his pocket. He's
over at CES now and I'm betting he'll come back with something.

I digress. I've owned two pairs of Forte II's which are the Chorus II's
smaller cousin (though not by much). I thought they were excellent
speakers, especially for what they go for. Very versatile with all kinds of
music and many different amps I paired them off with. I could certainly
enjoy them for a long time with no complaints. I moved onto LaScala's
which does them one better and really shine with tubes. If you like your
Chorus II's why not listen to a pair of LaScalas or Khorns (if you have the
space and opposing corners), or even Cornwalls? Just a thought. Better
yet, try a good tube amp with your Chorus II's...they really don't need
that much power to shine...25-35watts of tube power will keep you
grinning I'd suspect and be a nice change from the McIntosh SS amps
you have. Try it out first of course...perhaps you may know a local
audiophile who may do some listening with you and bring their amp
over. I've done that where I live and had a great time and made friends
at the same time.

Marco

You have a great system now. So finding something that will make you pull out the wallet may be a challenge. That Mac/Klipsch sounds pretty good, I'm sure. Good luck.

Cheers

The other posters are pretty much right. The Klipsch/Magnepan comparison is dogs and cats. The thin sound you heard could also have come from a couple of things: If the pair in the shop were new and not run in that would explain a lot of the brightness you heard. Magnepan speakers need about 200-300 hours on them to open up. The power was adequate for the most part. Was the room a large one, with a lot of hard surfaces. Properly powered and set up Magnepans are capable of very respectable bass output. Of course, I am also making this claim based on living with the much larger MG 3.6R. But, I also have a pair of MMGs which make a very nice showing of themselves in the bass department as well.

You have a very nice setup as it is. The sound of the ultra high efficiency Klipsch is very different from the classic Maggie sound. I am willing to bet that if you have the opportunity to listen to a good Maggie setup for an extended time with music you are familiar with, give your ears a chance to adjust to what you are hearing, you will discover that the bass is there and that it is very accurate, the midrange is true to the source and there is a seamless integration of the sound. That said, you may also discover that you prefer what you have. There is no denying that Magnepans are fussy to set up, crazy power hungry beasts, and the bass does not move air the way a cone woofer can, but make no mistake, they can do bass.

Hi, I heard the 1.6's several times a few years ago. Half the demo's sounded good the other half did not. At the time a (75mi. away) local dealer had a demo pr. on sale. I spent 2-3 hours in the store listening,( they said they were broken-in ) I knew this pr. did not sound right. I still brought them home for a weekend. I played them all day and all night. But they still sounded thin and lifeless. I returned them (I had Legacy Classic's at the time). About 6 months later I bought a used pr. of MG-12's with the same sound. So I let them play and play and play. After about 1 month they sounded alot better(warmer and dynamic). So break-in is very important. I sold the 12's in time but I'm still kicking myself for not keeping the 1.6's and giving them enought time to fully break-in. Cheers!