Speaking of Speakers...

[Rob Kling]

A quick note: I have not heard *any* of these speakers except the
Stage and an early version of the 'steen (2B) .... but all
have been reviewed in Stereophile or Absolute Sound in the last few
years (including a recent review of the Stage in Stereophile).

All of the speakers have some terrific sonic advantages and, except for
the Mirage, well known weaknesses. Much depends on your budget, cost
of associated equipment & **interest/willingness/ability to fiddle
around with placement**. People who review Maggies & the Apoggees report
considerable time spent placing them in the exact spot & orientation in
their rooms to get best performance, & suggest that they can sound
poor-mediocre with casual (and very suboptimal) placement. The Maggies will
also require a larger room to sound fine than the Stage or 'steen.

--------------------- (bottom line)

The choice depends as much upon your associated eqpt (before & after upgrade),
the size of your room, & willingness to fiddle with placement. The speaker
that sounds the best under the best of these conditions is so likely to
be sensitive to assoicated eqpt & room that it can be a poor choice for you.

Without knowing much else, my own personal tastes lean toward dynamic
speakers because they are less demanding of closely matched associated
equipment & precise placement to get very good (but not the best)
sound.

/Rob

[Kurt Strain]

>
>My question is: What experiences have others had with these speakers? In
>particular, in comparing these speakers.
>
> 1. Mirage M-3 - So far my favorite because of its imaging, detail,
> openness, BIG sweet spot, and bass.

I demoed these for a week in my home and found it had some terrific
advantages and some disadvantages you may not be aware of yet. I felt
the bass is a bit boomy, especially in a small room. In a really large
room and maybe a tube amp they don't show this problem as bad. I'll bet
from the way they sound that they are ported, but the enclosure doesn't let you
see that. The highs are subdued, but very pleasant. The imaging you speak
of is not specific, but broad, and the dipole makes it sound open.
I almost bought these but the boomy, porty bass sound was not acceptable
to me in my average size living room. It may work for you, you should see
if you could get a home demo.

> 2. Apogee Stage- The sweet spot is narrow, bass can be a little
> cardboardy, but otherwise very nice. I would love to be
> able to afford a bigger Apogee, but between the cost of the
> speaker and needing to have a new amp at the same time to
> drive it, this is out of reach.

The bass is really humpy and the highs are really rolled off, yet these
sound terrific. I preferred the Magnepan because I would rather have a
slightly rolled up high than a really rolled off high. They are more amp
specific than the Maggies, I believe less efficient with a lower impedance.
The Maggies I heard could play louder than the Stage I heard, and that makes
sense since the panels have more area and the Maggies don't accentuate
the bass. I think the Maggies were overall a better bet because of all this.

> 3. Magnapan MGIII - Same comments as above. I can get this one for
> a good discount because the MG3.3 is coming out. I think I
> prefer the bass on the Apogees a bit more, but this
> characteristic is SO room dependent, I'm not sure.

This would be my choice in this price range. Easy to drive, they play
beautifully once you get your head in a vice. I just liked the sound
of these the best, but set-up is definitely crucial. It's possible
that you won't get the desired results from these. A home demo would
be nice again.

> 4. Vandersteen 2Ci (or 3) - I've been waiting for the Vandersteen 3s to
> come in. Hopefully, they will solve some of the things that
> I don't like about the 2Cis. I find that the 2Cis don't have
> as much detail or realistic bass as the otheres. But they are
> certainly less expensive.

These are the audio bargain of the last two decades, but they're not
for everyone like you say. I think the bass is actually better on these
than the M-3's and when I side-by-side compared these to the M-3's in
my living room there was unanimous agreement among my friends
that these sounded better. Remember though that your mileage will vary.

When you ask for opinions on speakers, look out. You can just get yourself
confused and jaded like I did. I was looking for a speaker in this price
range and it ended up costing me more than twice as much before I could
be happy. I can't overstress the importance of getting a home demo before
you commit to a purchase. You'll really find out if you can live with them
that way.