I think that these speakers are an excellent candidate for a pair of speakers you can casually listen to everyday and also critically listen to when you want to get into the music. They are also priced very reasonably for speakers that are capable of just opening up a room the way that they do and surrounding you with solid sound. Driven in a medium size (14 ft or so per) room with solid tube amplification (i use quicksilver silver 90's with kt88s), these really come alive. They are detailed, but not intrusively forward in the midrange, and are nice on the high end. I wish there were more midbass and more defined highs, but this could be a symptom of the room that i use or the shape of my head, ears, or what... you could go on forever i suppose. They are not IRS Vs or anything like that, but then again, what is (and those aren't even perfect, but sure give effortless amounts of sound). Perfection is unattainable, but magic can be gotten at any price point, and if you're lookin for candidates for a magical system, then check these out! Well worth the time. Happy listening.

I've had a pair of 1.5's since 1991. They blow the doors off any box speaker I've ever heard, certainly in the under $2,000.00 class (Definitive Technologies BP-20).
Even with questionable electronics (a crappy SONY cd player, ADCOM preamp & amplification) the soundstage, imagery, depth and clarity are nothing short of mesmorizing, in my opinion.

Placement of individual instruments is precise, and overall quality in this price range makes them a best value in my opinion.

My only disaffections for this product are as follows...

1) A person MUST be married to them. Forget about placing them the way you want to...they require a specific set up and perform best in this fashion.

2) Because they are quasi planars, a lot more mileage will be gotten out of electronics that deliver the balls. I am in the midst of shopping for new electronics because I believe I can get even better sound from better equipment (Aragon, Bryston, Conrad -Johnson etc.)

I highly recommend these speakers to anyone looking for transport "Beyond the 7th Galaxy". They will definitely do the job.

ACCURACY
TOTAL OVERALL SOUND
CLARITY

POWER DEMAND
THEY WILL FIND YOUR WEAK LINK

The Magneplanar 1.5's are my first real high end stereophile rated speakers.
I must say that these are some of the best speakers I have ever heard, period.
The voicing is unbelievable and the all the music I have played through them just comes to life.
I listen to mostly rock and some blues and classical thunder type stuff.
I have enlisted the help of a PSB Stratus SubSonic 3i for the powerful lows
I did not except the 1.5's to have strong lows as they are rated to go down only to 40hz.
Let me tell you that you will be hard pressed to find a better speaker combination at this price level.
These speakers can get the job done well for any style of music.
Pink Floyds welcome to the machine knocked pictures off the walls and RUSH's YYZ killed some of my wife's plants.
Bottom line was $650.00 for the 1.5's from e-bay and $500.00 for the sub from audiogon.
Above I said that they will find your weak link, well mine was an onkyo M-501 150 watt per / ch rms. amp with separate pre-amp
I thought they could cut it, well they couldn't, the protection circuitry just could"nt wait to trip
so I got an aragon 4004 mkII dual mono beast now 100 db is not a job it's an adventure.
So to some it all up don't expect to have earth shaking bass without a sub, although the bass from the magnepans is very good and has a very true sound.
The sound imaging through the mid bass to highs is phenomenal and will blow you away and let you hear things you never knew were there before.
You will have to spend some big bucks to beat a good pair of planars.

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Excellent speakers. VERY sensitive to the ability of your amplifier and pre-amp. Also very sensitive to placement. (I can tell without looking if my wife has moved either speaker by more than 1" in any direction. If you have a quality amp with lots of headroom, these speaker really preform. (150 clean watts min.) I have an Accuras amp that runs 150 in to 8 ohms and will run about 250 clean in to 4 ohms. I consider this a minimum amp for the speaker. With less power you will not get any base and will probably have a hole in the mid range.. They are not power efficient, but I feel they have the best sound under $2000 a pair with a good amp.

The magneplanar 1.5 are some of the best speakers that I have heard in the price range. I'm not sure how anyone came to the conclusion that the midrange was not accurate. The best thing about magneplanars is their accuracy. I am using a Rotel amp to power them and I have experienced none of the previous claims about harshness listed below. I agree that the bass is lacking, but that is the easiest of all abnormalities to fix. I have experienced almost 3D imaging with my current system. I would suspect that the claims listed below were bad amp/speaker matches.