I hadn't noticed this thread until today. I have very limited experience of German Physics - and for that matter MBL.
My room lends itself to omnis as the speakers are placed mid-room, either side of a structural column in a 945 sq ft semi-circular room. My dining and kitchen areas are behind the speakers but the main listening area is in front of course.
I visited 2 dealers that had these 2 brands on demo and spent a couple of hours listening to each system. My problem is that I regard very highly (perhaps too highly) the imaging abilities of my speakers. I'd been using horns since 2002, but since moving here, I first tried electrostatics as a possible alternative to my horns. Quad sounded surprisingly good, but the Martin Logans were very disappointing. So my next, and more logical thoughts were towards omnis.
Although I never got to the stage of organising home demos of either brand, it was pretty obvious from the dealer showroom demos that the imaging offered by both systems was not a patch on the horns - provided you are sitting in the horns’ small sweet spot.
I've concluded that I'll stick with the horns, although of course the sound when I'm behind the speakers is seriously compromised. However the benefit of the exceptional imaging they offer when I'm comfortably sitting in my listening chair is something I value enough to accept the poor sound from behind the speakers.
If you value imaging a little less that I do, then omnis may be an ideal choice if you are likely to be listening from in front, beside, or behind your speakers, If that's not the case, I see no real advantage of omnis over horns or electrostatics.
I'd still considering a hybrid / mongrel system whereby I add a pair of German Physics PQS-100 units close to my Avantgarde Duo XDs, arranged in such a way that I can choose to use either the horns or the PQS units for middle and top, but either way using the AG's bass units for the lower frequency range. Tricky project in view of the hugely different sensitivity of horns vs the GP units, so still just a possible project.
