Magnepan LRS compared to the .7 or the 1.7i ?

    I agree, cost is important and it's basically a matter of options and choices.  
    I think highly of REL subs in general, but my main concern for Angel/ rankaudio is whether a pair of REL T5i subs specifically are the best option for his system since they only have bass extension down to 32 Hz. My thought is a pair of subs with bass extension down closer to 20 Hz would be a more capable and enjoyable pairing with his high quality .7 speakers. There's a lot of old and newavailable recordings with musical content between 20-32 Hz that Angel simply wouldn't be even hearing.
    It would be Angel's choice as to whether he wanted to use a pair of larger and more expensive REL subs or use another brand's pair of very good quality subs that would also be a more capable and enjoyable pairing with his .7 speakers, but cost considerably less.  
    I'd suggest a pair of SVS SB-1000 subs or comparable model HSU subs would provide high quality bass with deeper extension that may be an equally capable but more economical bass solution for his system. They'd be in the $1000-1,200/pair range and offer free 30-day in-home trial periods, so very low financial risk.

Tim

Noble -- Can I swing past your place and pick up a swarm array?  Because clearly you must be a dealer or stockholder, as you have hijacked the majority of this thread to push DBA systems.

Since most models roll off the bass is there a NEED for a cross over with subs? I ask because I like bass heavy music and worried about wrecking these even though I have subs.

It’s exciting to hear all the positive reviews about .7. Some questions as I’m considering a similar system: 

1. Is LRS sonically different from .7? The form factor is more condo friendly in city apartments. But I’d like to get decent sound too. 
2. Is the bass emaciated on these two smaller models in the MagnePan lineup? I’m no bass head and listen to a whole range of music including jazz and classical. But on 70s rock or some of the modern electronic stuff it helps to have a solid low end. I hear REL subs mentioned, but that’ll be way too much cabling and setup. I’d prefer to avoid that. 
3. My source is a Mac Mini. Would a Schiitt saga + vidar be enough to drive both LRS and .7? Brystons mentioned earlier in the thread are way too pricey. A Hegel 190 is somewhere lower but still pricey. I hear Schiitt Vidar is a good match for Magnepans? 
Many thanks. 

The LRS is a great choice for most rooms for two reasons. First, it has nearly all the best qualities of the bigger Maggies, and particular the magic midrange. It also has pretty decent bass for its size in a normal size room. With my RTA with pink noise the speaker is flat down to 80 Hz, but falls fairly quickly below that. If you are familiar with the Quad ESL-57, the LRS is essentially a Quad reincarnation tonally, but with MUCH better dynamics. Second, the speaker is "right sized’ for the room. The larger Maggies are too big for their own good, IMHO. The small ones (LRS / 0.7 / 1.7i) work MUCH better in the midrange in most normal size rooms. Imaging in particular is much improved over the big guys, which really need a large room to work geometrically. You end up sitting on top of them if the room is too small and that is not good.

Subwoofers - as Tim says, the Duke LeJuene / Earl Geddes Audio Kinesis 4-speaker SWARM is the best WOOFER system you can buy - period, for ANY room. That is because the assymetric distribution of four subwoofers around the room is the only way to defeat the room modes.  (If you are not familiar with the system, read Dr. Robert Greene's review of the system in The Absolute Sound.)  Room correction helps, but cannot correct for suck-out which plagues most listening rooms with one or two monopole woofers. That is true for any speaker - even the vaunted Magicos which are great but don’t work in anything short of the near field in a room typical of the Biltmore House.

Fortunately, there is a new DSP-enabled dipole subwoofer (the VPE Little Dipole Woofer - Model 1) coming out shortly which matches the radiation pattern of the small Maggies, AND solves the room mode problem via use of a true dipole radiation architecture. The recommendation is one LDW per Maggie with the back port radiating in phase and UNDER the bottom of the speaker standing up on MagnaRiser or Mye stands, and the driver radiating backwards out of phase. This provides a perfect match for the Maggie dipole pattern in the upper bass / lower midrange, and two of these woofers solve the room mode problem as well as the four-speaker Audio Kinesis SWARM does, but at half the cost. Stay tuned for more details soon.