[QUOTE=RGA]Listened to Magnepan, B&W, Audio Note on Friday ... QUOTE]

I greatly respect your opinions which are based on frequent and extensive listening; that especially applies to spearkers. So I was particularly interested to hear that you finally got to listen to some Magneplanars. Your conclusions re. these speakers are not at all surprising, given (a) the nature of the speakers, and (b) your particular preferences.

To address the the latter first, it does seem you place high priority on dynamics, both macro and micro. It would seem that Audio Notes excel in this area. At least this is what your numerous reports imply to me; unfortunately I have never heard any AN speaker myself. Dynamics, particularly marco dynamics, are not areas of strength for Magneplanars. Especially with the smaller models -- certainly the MMG which I own -- a subwoofer is called for if you listen to anything much more than chamber music. BTW, I was able to "seamlessly" integrate my sub with minimal effort: I recommend an active cross-over at 80Hz for the MMGs, albeit the lower bass looses some "tightness".

Placement of Magneplanars is critical though not necessarily difficult. (This is true of all dipole, bipole, and omni speakers including Martin Logans, etc..) When auditioning them, always watch positioning: they ought to be 3+ feet from any wall for a start. That is, unless room treatments are used, but the effect of these can be difficult to gauge.

Magnepan is sometime criticized for not building better cross-overs or for not using good enough x-over components. And they have never bothered to sell products tweaked in this respect -- here one might say they are the antithesis of Audio Note.

By all means give Magneplanar more auditions when you have the opportunity. I doubt that you will make them your personal choice, but you might come to see why so many people love them. Or why, (regardless of your opinion of press reviewer in general), TAS rates all of Magnepan's models (except MMG), "best buys" in their respective price categories.