Interesting thinking about going from Bose 901 I to Magneplanars. This is going for the arena rock concert to the piano jazz bar. One has the sound all around you pounding you and the other, well close your eyes and you can see the stand up bass player off to the right has on a Blue Tie.
The comment about adding a sub to the 901s...at a tweeter bank too and use those 901 drivers as midrange units. OK I'm done.
When I was selling we had the 901s, TimeWindows, DQ-10s, Magenplanars and Epicure 3.0s. So making the 901 to Magneplanar move to me is the most extreme of the speakers I'm very familiar with, even to this day as I have MG-IIIa, TimeWindows and just picked up some DQ-10s a month or two ago.
I've had the 901s, later series, III, I think and the first time I heard PF, Wish You Were Here, a friend brought it over, said it was intense and it was cranked on the 901s. I will never forget that. Maybe a 12 x 12 room Crown DC-300a and a turntable that would take all of that sonic impact and not miss a beat. Awesome.
A most awesome and informed post!! Multi-driver small cone driver vs. large planar's are extreme to decide. I'm an electro-stat guy, big power amp
struggling to output a 2 ohm load to a thin piece of mylar that uses the air in the room as well as the walls to give you the 'bumps' get's the stumeister's junk in a major knot
I miss my Martin Logans so much
Bought right Magneplanars are a very nice speaker but they won't slam the way many other speakers can. But the clarity is amazing.