After Hearing Henk's re-built Apogee Grands I would like to see someone make a speaker with a ribbon tweeter crossed over to a ribbon midrange crossed over to Apogee Full Range or Apogee Grand woofer panels crossed over to a separate, tall column of dynamic drivers (conventional cones). And the ribbon drivers should be sensitive enough to be powered by tube amplifiers.
What speaker in production today do you think most closely approximates this design brief?
Magnepan 20.7i with multiple subs would approach this ideal. Magnepan speakers could well be the Rodney Dangerfield of Audio. They are known to be very good and challenge speakers costing several time their prices, yet in the discussion for great speakers, they are rarely mentioned. The knock on them could well be their modest price. I would be one of the first to agree they have their fault... then again so do all speaker from Acapella to Zellaton, regardless of model or price, none is perfect. I think that Magnepan speakers should be more rigid. Their frames flex when handled and I have no doubt that these do so while playing. More structural integrity would help the sound IMHO. Crossover parts are not the greatest, perhaps they could gain by using better quality parts and perhaps an outside box. Also I would think that limiting the amount of bass that reaches the woofer panels would result in increased clarity in that magical 100 Hz to 250 Hz , Ron is talking about: The Maggies are among the best in this region ( John Dunleavy speakers designs Dunleavy speakers and Duntech remain the kings of midbass "bloom and "authority" in my book.). And use multiple distributed subwoofer in the bass. Von Schweikert did or perhaps still has a model with a distributed sub approach I believe 2 in the back of the listening position.
Maggie 20.7 + Stands such as the Mye or Mods for the frame + Replacement of crossover parts ( I have my doubt there but remain open to the idea that better components would result in better sound) + Finding ways to passively or actively (my preference) to reduce bass under 100 Hz to the speaker a simple 6 dB/Octave crossover or actively doing this via things like Dirac or Acourate?
4 serious but not uber subs from say, JL Audio (Fathom) or Seaton (Submersive) , Paradigm (Sub 1) . Using several subs provide much higher output and lower distortion.
Such a system is feasible and may cost much less than many top shelf under $50K while challenging the best out there ..
Marty is using JL Audio Gotham and their crossover with his Pipedreams . One could well do the same with Maggies to approach what Ron is thinking about .... Food for thought.. and to say I am thinking about leaving the Magnepan stable