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Bought a pair of Magnepan LRS. Should I buy a Schiit Vidar or Bryston 3B-ST?

Has anyone heard both? I plan on travelling so small form factor matters to me but I'd like to stay with class ab, and balanced connections. I like the idea of having monoblocks with the Schiit when I get the money, and I've had good experiences with the brand. (Owned a Saga, a Mani, and a Jotunheim twice) but Bryston has the name recognition. I'm also concerned that upgrade fever would be relentless with the 3B-ST until I got the new and very expensive 3B3.
areasonableman
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
Hello dougstat,

I’m definitely very interested. I think I’d be satisfied if they just outperform my current Magnepan 2.7QRs. Mine are 6’ x2’ , about 60 pounds and difficult to move one handed into optimum position for music listening(I had a stroke and still can’t use my left arm and hand). The LRS are 4’ x 14.5" and only about 44 pounds. Otoh, mine are 3-ways while the LRS are 2-way.
For $650 and a 60-day satisfaction guarantee, I probably should just buy them and give them a good audition.

Thanks,
Tim
maplegrovemusic's avatar
maplegrovemusic
1,113 posts
 
bryston  
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
maplegrovemusic,

     Responding by just stating "bryston", with no further effort at explaining why, is intellectually lazy, myopic, meaningless and its actual value to this thread, the OP or anyone else is in direct proportion to the number of words you proffered.  Why bother?


Tim
areasonableman OP
15 posts
 
In an annoying twist of fate, UPS messed up the internals of the amp in shipping. It worked well for a couple hours and then gave up the ghost. https://imgur.com/a/i8c4gL

Could someone please tell me what kind of part it is that’s cracked? I’m not proficient in electronics terminology but I’d like to know what I’m looking at to get it fixed. Already have a great guy who fixed my turntable so I’ll go to him again.

Impressions while it worked was that the separation and soundstage were the best I’ve heard; not even close. Blasting Deafheaven’s The Pecan Tree made that already massive sounding song sound nothing short of cataclysmic, moving me to very real tears. Roger Water’s Three Wishes was startling, with the Genie’s voice zooming in and out of the edges of the room. Bass definition and detail were fantastic as well, with Primus' Tommy The Cat sounding truly awesome, Les Claypool's bass playing came through with no perceivable blurring of notes at all. The amount of bass isn’t quite what I'm looking for, but I think I can live with it. Bad recordings sounded pretty bad (Daniel Johnston) but I wasn’t surprised about that.

Once I get a good phono pre I’ll report back with my decision on whether or not to get a tube linestage, because it’s a little more sterile than I’d like on quiet acoustic recordings, but that might be my DAC. (Grace SDAC Balanced) Basically if my vinyl rig sounds great when I find a used ifi iPhono2, which I’ll use with my Technics SL-10 w/Grado Red2, I’ll start saving for a Schiit Gungnir Multibit. If it’s still a smidge lifeless I’ll start saving for a Schiit Freya+ or if I’m super patient, a Woo Audio WA22.
areasonableman OP
15 posts
 
Whoops messed up the link while editing, here it is: https://imgur.com/a/i8c4gLf
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