Hello jamesmagnot,
This guy’s review made you decide to buy a pair of LRS?
https://youtu.be/DxZvzWEf-m8
I’ve not yet heard the LRS in person but have been reading all the reviews I can find to learn more about them. This guy’s review was the most unusual one I’ve read or viewed thus far.
It could be my fault to a degree, but I didn’t gain as much knowledge from this review as most I’ve read and seen. However, I’m not going to take all the blame for this guy’s failure to paint a coherent picture of the LRS’s sound quality. Sure, he describes these speakers as a great bargain, sounding great, not harsh or bright at all and able to create a 3 dimensional soundstage image with great "death", I think he meant depth. Okay, I already use Magnepans and that all makes sense to me.
But then he delves into describing the bass as "sandy"? Sandy? Did he just say the bass was sandy? Abrasive? Scratchy? Sandy, wtf? Come’on man, sandy? I think he means ’dry’ but that’s an extremely poor adjective for describing the bass response of a speaker, too.
I want to make it clear to you that I definitely don’t think you made a mistake by ordering a pair of the LRS. I’m just surprised this guy’s review convinced you to do it.
I also wanted to make sure you don’t have unreasonably high expectations of their bass response. As I stated, I own an older pair of Magnepan 2.7QR speakers but have never heard the LRS. The 2.7 are fairly large (6’ x 2’) 3-ways with a large (625 sq.in.) dipole planar-magnetic bass section and have a rated bass extension down to 35 Hz. By comparison, the LRS are fairly small (4’ x 14.5") 2-ways with a combined midrange and bass dipole planar-magnetic section and have a rated bass extension down to 50 Hz.
I would describe my 2.7s as bass shy or bass limited even though the bass they do produce is of a very high quality. I can understand if some would consider their bass sufficiently good not to need sub augmentation.
Based solely on their rated bass extension of only 50 Hz, however, I seriously doubt I would understand if some would consider the LRS bass as sufficiently good not to need sub augmentation. I think I would need to be English, or have no knowledge of the importance of the added impact and realism that high quality bass response has on musical and HT audio reproduction, to consider not utilizing a well implemented sub system with the LRS. I’m suspecting the LRS may best be described by some as ’bass starved.
What are the options for attaining better bass response when using the LRS? Here are my suggestions in order of effectiveness:
1. Buy an Audio Kinesis Swarm 4-sub distributed bass array (DBA) system for $3,200. Here’s an Absolute Sound review:
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/audiokinesis-swarm-subwoofer-system/
Or, buy the almost identical Audio Kinesis DEBRA 4-sub DBA system for $2,990:
www.jamesromeyn.com/old-pages/home-audio-gear/dsa-1-0-distributed-subwoofer-array-5-pieces-4k-usd/
I use the AK DEBRA system with my Magnepans and the bass is near state of the art in my room for both 2-ch music and HT. Of course, the downside is that both of these DBAs cost about 5 times the price of a pair of the LRS. But this is the ideal solution and the sound quality performance level of the combination will rival the top Magnepan models and many other speakers costing significantly more.
2. Buy a pair of very good quality subs of your choice and use the ’crawl method’ (google it) to optimally position them for about $1,000/pr. or more.
This will provide excellent bass response quality and seamless integration with the LRS, just like either of the 4-sub DBAs, but the sota bass quality performance will be limited to a single specified listening sweet spot position rather than throughout your entire room that the DBA solution provides. I’m recommending a pair of subs rather than a single sub, no matter the quality or cost of that single sub, because a pair will perform about twice as well as a single sub in virtually any given room. A pair of subs will provide much better bass integration with the LRS and provide superior bass impact and dynamics than a single sub.
The truth will remain that a 4-sub DBA systems will perform about twice as well as a pair of subs but you’ll have the option to upgrade to a 4-sub DBA system in the future by just adding an additional pair of subs.
3. Learn to accept the poor bass response of the LRS and the reduced natural and realistic musical bass qualities that entails.
Tim