I've had several pairs of maggies over the years. MMGs, SMGa (pre-curseur to the MMG), and a HUGE 6' pair of 2.6R's (not too long ago).
The maggie to have is the 1.6R. they've come down a lot in price these days.., IMO, they offer the most maggie bang for the buck.
True true, Maggies are Plannar speakers, not electrostatic. with electrostats, you actually have to plug the speakers into the wall to provide the charge to the metal on each side of the mylar film (diaphragm), which is how that magic works.
Im and ML fan ..., true and true. I've had several pairs of those too, and prefer them over the maggies just because you dont really need a sub w/the hybrids like ML's that have a Xover that sends proper signals to their enclosed whoofer.
some tips for MMG owners...take w/a pinch of salt as these were my findings over the course of the last 10 years of lisltening and in several different rooms where I was setting up my stereo...
1. build / buy some new stands so that you can elevate them a tiny bit..., like 10" or so off the floor. BIG difference.
2. keep them straight, not "laid back"..., you'll get a much more solid presentation.
3. AT MINIMUM....50wpc of Class A or AB power that can drive 4ohm load. And thats just for little maggies. you can dump a 100w + into them w/o issue. Big maggies..., you'd want min of 100w.
4. if trying to blend a sub w/a pair of maggies...., I recommend a multi-driver sub as I find they tend to be a little "faster" in what they do compared to a single huge driver. I'm a fan of multiple 8" drivers in a small sub (like the baby boomer from pinicle).
I used my Sony dual 10" driver sub.,...., and it blended very nicely (that was only a $200 ish sub whoofer...its all about how fast those big paper cones and move to keep up w/the wafer thin planar speaker.
5. You'll never hear tubes sound so good as through a quality ESL or Planar. Period. But to drive them properlyl, you'll have to spend 5x as much on this said tube amp (think POWER) than you did on the maggies.