Magnepan LRS compared to the .7 or the 1.7i ?
Here is a review comparing to the .7 at about 5.5 minutes into the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdqchci3AhU The .7 has more bass, greater dynamics, and a larger sweet spot. It’s the same speaker, you just get more of it. |
"Elizabeth- good insight on the backlash. And I hope my quest is not futile" Sounds a bit like Debbie Downer to me. With Magnepan's 60 day return policy at least you can try them at home to see if they work for you without too much hassle. Sure it may take a bit more to make them sing (amp / placement / etc) but isn't that part of the fun of this hobby. Magnepan asks what amp are you planning to use when buying them to help folks understand what they are getting into. |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdqchci3AhU Above video appears to give answer to OP’s question. I had used Apogee Duetta Signature driven by Krell KSA 150 from 1989 to 1999. But I had never used Magnepan in my listening room although I heard them in the stores. My impression was Magnepan had softer bass than Apogee. Currently I am driving Lansche 4.1 speaker with plasma tweeter (99db/w spec, real efficiency around 95db/w) by either Line Magnetic 508 48Watt SET or Silbatone 8W SET. I do not expect LRS to bump out Lansche 4.1. But I can have fun in using dipole speaker again. Since I have Lyngdorf 2170 which has an active crossover, I have lot of flexibility. I will play LRS from 55 hz using Lyngdorf 2170(170watt at 4 ohm) and use PSB subsonic 10 subwoofer down from 55hz. If LRS give some fun, then I will be happy to keep it as second speaker. I believe LRS will give lot of people a chance to try out dipole planar speaker for the first time in their life. I will give my opinion after listening to it for at least one week. It will be around the end of June. Thomas |
Here’s a review of the LRS from Steve Guttenberg/Audiophiliac from youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdqchci3AhU He does talk about the differences between the LRS/.7/1.7 models, mainly stating the LRS is Magnepan’s ’appetizer speaker’ and , at $650/pr, an excellent and affordable way to experiencing the open, articulate, transparent and palpable sound with excellent but limited bass response. He mentions how moving up the Magnepan model line just gets you more of this sound, beginning with the .7 and 1.7 which he describes as being taller, wider, more expensive versions of the LRS that sound warmer and have a bit more bass. He also discusses the difficulty of integrating subs with Magnepans, stating he really gave up trying to integrate subs with them when he last tried when he owned a pair of 3.6s. I understand his frustration after experimenting for a few years, at first with a single sub and later with dual subs, trying to integrate the bass seamlessly with my older 2.7QR 3-way Magnepans. Changing from a stereo class AB Aragon 4004 MKII amp (400 watts/ch at 4 ohms) to a pair of D-Sonic M3-600-M class D mono-blocks (1,200 watts/ch at 4 ohms) significantly improved the bass quality, power and dynamics of the 2.7QR’s rather large 623 square inch quasi-ribbon bass sections but the bass extension is limited to about 36 Hz. I completely understand why Magnepan owners love the performance of their speakers, regardless of model, and are willing to sacrifice powerful, extended and dynamic bass response rather than do without the excellent performance of them from the mid-bass on up as well as the exceptional sound stage imaging. But I’ve also discovered that experiencing even just most of the bottom octave (16-32 Hz) on music and ht is immensely enjoyable mainly because I perceive both as more realistic. I’m not a Bass-Head but I admit I enjoy the bass weight and power that viscerally involves your whole body in the music or ht. My main intention of posting on this thread is to spread the word that there is a proven method, based on scientific research and psycho-acoustic principles, to seamlessly integrate powerful, extended, dynamic and articulate bass response with the excellent frequency response of fast Magnepan planar-magnetic and electrostatic panel speakers. I’m a bit amazed that there’s not more awareness of how well 4-sub distributed bass array systems perform, especially on high quality audio sites like Audiogon and Audio Asylum. I find this lack of awareness of dbas to be unfortunate and perplexing. Here’s a link to an Absolute Sound review of the Audio Kinesis Swarm dba system that I think describes its performance and benefits very accurately: www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/audiokinesis-swarm-subwoofer-system/ I don’t want to be a distraction to the main subject of this thread out of politeness but also because I’m very interested in the comparisons and performance reviews of these 3 least expensive Magnepan models. I’m very intrigued by the the overall system sound performance prospects of combining the excellent performance of the Magnepan true ribbon tweeters for treble and the quasi-ribbons for the mid-bass and mid-range with the only qualities I suspect are lacking in all of these models preventing state of the art performance; excellent powerful, dynamic, articulate, extended and seamlessly integrated deep bass performance that I’m certain a dba system would provide. While it could be true that my words describing how exceptionally well the dba concept actually works may have convinced no one, I truly believe even a brief dba audition would likely convince virtually everyone. Enjoy, Tim |
