Maggie LRS amping question


I've had a pair of LRS for a few months, and been extremely happy with them. I'm currently running them off a Rotel RC-9808x preamp and a Rotel RB-9808x amp. This setup seems great, but as I don't know if I'm reaching the LRSs potential, I'm wondering if its worth it to buy a second RB-9808x and run them in mono. Would this be worth it? are we talking 1% better or 10% better? The detail is already superlative, I'm just wondering if the soundstage would benefit from the additional power.

avicci

If you love them now, don't change anything, maybe begin to save up for a similar product that is larger, as others have said.  If you think they need to do better,  i agree with trying different amps.  From my own experience, it is not the price of the amp that is the deciding factor, but the amount of damping and/or some other synergy that is hard to define.  I found the SMSL DA-9 to do better than expected!  Not saying you should buy one, but if you can borrow one, try it, don't be afraid to try any inexpensive Class-D amp that you can borrow.  They may have better control over the bass, and the diffuse imaging of the LRS could maybe hide the other flaws the amp may have!

This is a true story, at least in my house, haha!

If you love what you have that is Something special.  As I am aging  closer to the "Get off my lawn" type, I am loathe to have a product that is telling me to buy more products!  Unless you have the money to spare, and enjoy spending it, I would not want to push you in that direction.

My friend brought his LRS over to use with my Pass 250.8  it surprised me how good these speakers sounded as I have 3.7i for the $ I'd say unbeatable. We then added my 2 subs to the mix and it was truly astonishing to hear.

You do need plenty of great power these LRS speakers took a lot more volume on my amp to reach the same playing level of the 3.7i.

Enjoy

lrs will sound better and better with a better source, or better amp... the speaker, set up properly with proper stands (perhaps with subs supporting), has tremendous resolution and shows through any poor sounding source and/or weak amplification upstream of it

of course common sense should prevail, but it is not unreasonable to have a $2000-3000 hegel or pass amp drive it... of course if one wants to hear what the speaker is truly capable of... this is very very atypical of most sub-$1000 a pair speakers

 

+1 jjss49.  

Maggies operate at low impedance, driven more by current than watts. Bridging an amplifier produces greater watts at the expense of current. 

I am not familiar with your Rotel amp. If it delivers far greater watts into low impedances than the rated watts at 8 ohms, and it sounds clean at high volumes, then it seems OK on the power front. 

Advice on improving the presentation requires more information regarding your source, room size, room treatment, speaker placement. Are you willing to pursue options other than the purchase of a second Rotel amplifier?