Charlie,

>Doug:
>
>>>Really? And here all these years I thought they were. Shows how much I know.
>
>Yeah, the stats use a step up transformer about (50:1) to boost the audio drive voltage which is applied directly to the stators. A fixed DC bias is then applied to the diaphram which is made conductive by coating it with graphite. The changing audio signal polarity causes the diaphram to move.

Hmmmm.. Let me describe the construction of them to you..

Two sheets of mylar sandwiching a single contiguous wire from bottom to top and back again. That single wire reduces in size as it moves from bottom to top. This wire is somehow 'fused' in between these twh sheets of tightly stretched mylar. Immediately behind this panel of stretched mylar with embedded wire is a single sheet of perforated electronic 'type' board. On this board, towards the mylar side are a whole lot of correspondingly-sized magnets. There is a very small gap between the front of the magnets and the back side of the mylar 'sandwich'.

As was explained to me some 20 years ago the 'signal' going through the wire, as a direct result of the construction, caused the mylar to vibrate at different frequencies and tones - hence the lovely sound.

I've never been one who thought he had any great amount of knowledge of electronics so any errors are entirely mine here. <g>

BTW.. Here's the url to their site: www.magnepan.com

>
>Not really sure about the Planar magnetics. I believe they use permanent magnets and only one stator. The audio drive voltage is applied to the diaphram instead of the stator.
>
>>>Really? I don't think my ears are all that fine tuned these days.
>
>Yeah you will! Those Maggies are practically massless. Thats part of the reason why they sound so transparent. If you add a conventional woofer, you'll get lots of delayed resonance from the woofer and more so from the cabinet. You will definitely be able to detect the x-over point. Like I said, experiement with room placement instead.

Really? Wow.. There's hope yet. <g>