Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Axiom vs Magnapans

Hey buddies, just curious, I'm unfamiliar with this brand, but have someone at work that says there is no way my Axioms are better than his Magnapans. I don't know what model, but just curious? I know it is kind of an open ended question

I see I spelled it wrong, probably why I didn't find anything under search

Maggies have a different type of sound.......big soundstage, not necessarily detailed or accurate....but maggie lovers love that big soundstage.

Imagine a wall with sound coming from it.

Don't take his word for it. Ask him if he will let you listen to his system? Which modle Maggies does he have? The Maggie sound is not for everyone but it is sort of unique. Listen for yourself and that way you can be the judge.

I have never heard the Maggies but I know Saturn has heard pretty much their entire lineup. He could give you alot of info on them. Maggies have an awesome reputation but for my situation the low sensitivity and critical placement issues made me a bit wary.

As everyone else is saying, "better" is hard to say when you are comparing electrostatics with conventional speakers. I had some Quad ELSs for a while and absolutely loved them... please don't ask me if the M60s are better because it's a real apples-to-oranges comparison.

The 60s are more accurate, play louder, cover the full range better, handle dynamics better, all that "measurable" stuff... but the ELSs seem to give you decently good imaging without ANY sense of the sound coming from speakers at all.

I listened to Quads more than Maggies but the effect is similar... and in many ways the Magnepans (Magneplanars, whatever) are "even more different" because of their height.

EDIT -- I'm having doubts about one of the comments I made above... not actually sure if the Axioms handle "dynamics" better, come to think of it. You know that "microdynamics" thing that everyone babbles about ? I'm not sure what it is but I wouldn't be surprised if the Quads were better at it

>>critical placement issues made me a bit wary

My experience wasn't that placement was "critical", just that you needed a whole whack of space. I always had the best results when they were FAR FAR away from the wall, sort of like the "bookshelf speakers on stands in the middle of the room" setup.

I have read that you can run them quite close to the wall if you get everything right, I just don't know how to do that

Yeah I probably should have rephrased that. In my square room and the tv in one of the corners, I figured I would have a difficult time getting the optimal placement with them. "Space concerns" might have been a better way to say it.

Mine have detail in spades, thank you very much! And even If they are not totally accurate (what speakers are?), I don't think the average ear is going to miss any thing

In reply to:

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Imagine a wall with sound coming from it.

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Imagine that same wall as transparent and very deep.

This thread reminds me of Sushi...anyone know if he ever got his Maggies....he was always looking at them and trying to get everyone to do front projector. He was as big a FP pusher as Ray is when it comes to those MX700 remotes!