Quote Originally Posted by angelgz
Also, I think Planar speakers are disappearing from the market except for Martin Logan. I see some DIY stores still sell planar (ribbon) transducers...etc, but none of the famous speaker manufactures uses these anymore. Is it also because they are no good?
I've been a fan of planers for a very long time. I've owned Quad ESL's and I presently own Magnepan. I also owned a pair of Phase Linear's back in the 70's.

All of these have that magic that only planers can give and with the right music they were the best. However, they all lack the dynamics and punch that only box speakers seem to do well.

What they have going against them is that they are usually large and have to be placed out into the room to sound their best. It's a dipole thing!

I've also listened to many of the Martin Logan speakers and found that their higher end models sounded pretty good, but their lower end didn't do the trick for me.

Times have changed and people are more interested in surround sound and unless you have a very large room and lots of money, planers are out of the question.

In addition to that, the last generation or two seem to be into window shattering bass, which planers do not do well.

Only once have I heard Magnepan speakers sound good in a store. Most of the time they sound anemic. That's sad because they are very nice speakers when set up correctly.

The bottom line is IMHO...

While planers have some of the best sound, they are not popular because of their size, the need to have them out into the room, surround sound, cost, and the type of music that many younger people listen to.

Oh, and don't forget the dreaded WEF (wife exceptance factor)...

There are many great speakers, both planer and box, but they are usually well above the price range that most people want to pay.

The last thing is that if Best Buy, Tweeters, or some other fast food audio store doesn't carry it, they have never heard of it.

We live in a world where people think Bose is high end.