btw - i am based in delhi, India and the toughest thing here is that you dont get a dealer who sells multiple brands together. so i literally have to drive around half the city to audition different brands...
and hey Pyrroh... those Mags look awesome... but do they retail in india? and what is your experience with these 'mini-mags''?
Oops! I believe that the Magnepan MMG is available only in the U.S. (They are sold factory direct, so it is a question of whether they will ship them to you, which I doubt, and if they would, I imagine the shipping fees would be extremely high.) For the upper models, you would have to find a dealer, and I don't see listings for dealers outside of Canada and the U.S., though I have been told there are dealers elsewhere. If you are interested in them, I recommend that you email Magnepan and ask them if there are any dealers near you.
Since you asked (not that it will do you much good), as for my experience with the MMG, it is very similar to the general reviews one finds of them online. They have a very clear and "natural" sound to them, being particularly good for reproducing acoustic music. The bass on the MMG is limited (the -3dB point is 50 Hz), though the bass that is there is very good, and reproduces sounds like an acoustic bass very realistically. Still, many users have said that they use a subwoofer with this speaker, and I can understand why. If one wants to hear bass heavy music, a subwoofer is a good idea with this speaker. The total output is also limited; though capable of being loud enough for sane levels in a normal room, they are absolutely unsuited for trying to reproduce the loudest Who concert at the actual concert level, or for filling a very large room with sound. They are more picky about room placement than most speakers, but they still sound good in less than ideal locations (just not as good as they can sound). Mostly, you may notice, I have mentioned their limitations and shortcomings. If I did not own
Apogee Stage speakers (Apogee was purchased by another company and almost immediately afterwards was closed down in the late 1990's), which is a similar design to Magnepan, I would be wanting some Magnepan speakers, though I would prefer a higher model, because as one goes up to better models, the shortcomings become less and less, though the higher models are bigger and therefore require more space (and, of course, cost more and more as one goes up the line). Still, if I were looking for a new speaker at $600, and if my room and amplifier could deal with it, I would go with the MMG. Despite their obvious limitations, they have a very good sound, and reproduce voice and other acoustic sounds with a realism that seems almost magical.
Part of the "magic" of them is that they are dipole speakers (which means that they radiate sound from the front and back, out of phase), about which you can read a short article at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole_speaker
And part of the "magic" of them is from being ribbon (or "quasi-ribbon") and planar speakers, which also have interesting characteristics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudspeaker#Ribbon_and_planar_magnetic_loudspeakers
Given your location, and
guessing at what you might be able to get there, I would also look into Aurum Cantus speakers. They are well known for their ribbon tweeters, though I believe they also make some less expensive speakers with dome tweeters. I currently own some Aurum Cantus Leisure 2SE (original U.S. version) speakers (though I own a version that is exclusive to the U.S., I have owned an "international" version in the past which was good, though not as good), and use them in my surround system for all channels (except the subwoofer channel, of course!), and I never plan on upgrading them. They are great (though not as "magical" as my Apogee Stage speakers, except in the treble). I would imagine you can buy the international version on eBay, though I do not particularly recommend that you do that, as it is good to listen to speakers before you buy them; your taste in speakers may be different from mine. So if you can find a dealer, then I would recommend listening to some
Aurum Cantus speakers with ribbon tweeters. Most of the reviews that one finds online about the Leisure 2SE is for the international version (all of them that are from reviewers outside the U.S. reviewing products for their own countries will not be the U.S. version, obviously), so you can read for yourself that they are highly regarded. For example:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0406/aurum_cantus_leisure_loudspeakers.htm
http://www.kellsieavdesign.com/Leisure2SE_Review.PDF
There are, as you can see if you visit the
Aurum Cantus website, newer (and some less expensive) models that one might also consider, though I have no direct experience with them.
As you can probably tell, I am a big fan of ribbons. Not everyone is, but I am very far from being alone in my affection for them.
It is unfortunate that dealers in your area don't carry multiple brands of speakers, as it really is extremely helpful to listen to different models side by side. My advice is to take with you a CD (or your favorite source type) of each type of music that you listen to, and, perhaps, write down your impressions of each speaker for each CD track you play so that you will maybe better remember how they sound when trying to decide which model you like best. Of course, they are all going to be in different rooms, with different positioning, which is not going to make the comparisons perfectly fair even if you had a superhuman acoustic memory (which you don't, as you are human). I really do not envy you in that situation, but if you are patient and take your time, and do not rush into anything, that will likely aid you in your quest. You might also want to take your current speakers with you to compare them against other speakers, if that is possible. That way, you would have a kind of reference point in your comparisons with different speakers.
Obviously, it would be a bother to take your speakers with you, but I think it would be helpful. If you decide to do this, if you have the packing boxes for them, I recommend that you put them in their boxes every time you move them, so that they are not accidentally damaged taking them from store to store for your auditions.
