Smitten With The Magnepan LRS

Loudspeakers
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Aloha to the kind denizens of the PSA forums!

As I no longer own any PSA gear, don’t get over to these parts as much as I once did. Wanted to follow up on my Hegel/ Magnepan LRS journey.

Two months after placing the order, the LRS arrived yesterday, completely unannounced. They had told me to expect a late December, early January delivery. I ordered them, and bought the Hegel H90 based on the enthusiastic recommendation by Audio Excellence on YouTube. So taken by their video, I sold off my entire PSA audio system.

I did on my own add the Border Patrol SE-i DAC and a Decware ZBpx tube buffer. All cabling is Duelund.

Right out of the box, with no speaker or speaker cable break in, the LRS sound stunning with the Hegel. I’m completely blown away. At times gasping as I listen to my very familiar test tracks. I have found the LRS need a sub, but my little $500 REL sub is working excellent with them.

I was concerned that the LRS would be bright, or thin sounding, and a bit too neutral for my warmth centric tastes. Those concerns couldn’t be further from the truth. The system synergy with the LRS is rich, organic, and with a massive soundstage. It sounds like my entire back wall is the speaker. Sound is literally coming from everywhere. My listening room has turned into a sea of sound, left to right, up and down, front to back. And that’s with zero break in.

I cannot speak for other amp combinations, but can attest with great enthusiasm that the Hegel/ LRS combo is simply amazing - Audio Excellence in Toronto was spot on. And the Hegel H90 is only 60 watts per channel, albeit very high current, wow.

I honestly think Magnepan has made a huge mistake with the LRS. Their goal was to create a near cost speaker that would draw the consumer into the Magnepan universe, with the notion I’d upgrade later into their more profitable models. The error is that they made the LRS too good! For my 12 X 20 X 12 room, and given the performance of the LRS, I have absolutely no interest in moving up the Magnepan line. It reminds of the Auralic Mini which was so good they had to stop making it.

I had already sold my PSA S300 before the LRS arrived, so I didn’t have a chance to audition the LRS with it. Would’ve been interesting.

For old time sakes, I hope @speed-racer will reply telling me how much the LRS suck :joy:. (Just kidding). Actually kudus to our fast driving friend for the Duelund recommendation, couldn’t be more pleased with them.

And there you have it. Hope all of you are managing the pandemic well. Many blessings for the holiday season.

Kind Regards,
John

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Excellent report and great to hear you are pleased.

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I really wondered how my .7’s might work with a Hegel amp, and I think we may have conversed over on the Roon forum about hegel’s Roon readiness…

For now, I’m running the quite different Rogue Sphinx V3 integrated to the Maggies, and I’m very happy with the combo. But I think at some point I’ll go the Hegel route. Great to hear your review.

And not to get political, but I am very envious of all my island-based friends during this nightmare. We have dear friends in New Zealand, too, and it’s excruciating seeing how things are here on the mainland, when some places/leaders have handled it so much more smartly/responsibly.

Ok, i got a little political. :disappointed:

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Congrats. They are amazing little speakers. I heard them at axpona when Wendell premiered them. I just couldn’t believe the space and the amount of bass coming from them. As they break in I bet you get more. If you have Tin Pan Alley by SRV - just play it. :slight_smile:

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I feel confident in saying the Hegel will be a meaningful step up, though that’s based on extrapolation and lots of reading. But the H95 is not enough for the .7’s, you need to move up their line. I got my Hegel on sale at Listen Up! in Denver. Free shipping both ways, 30 day in home trial. It’s worth an audition at some point.

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Only a Maggie owner would find the LRS “little” :joy:

They’re huge!

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I’m trying to restrain myself from buying these and this is not helping!!!

:wink:

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Yes, and no. Planar speakers almost by definition present a broad face but in terms of how much space they occupy, not so much. The LRS is 14" x 48" x 1" and so 696 cubic inches. A conventional box speaker that’s 12" x 8" x 8" occupies 768 cubic inches. It’s all a matter of perspective, I guess. :slight_smile:

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Oh, for sure.

Planning a ways down the road, frankly. At least I can’t picture any upgrades at the current covid moment, when my kid is home 24/7. He’ll be off to school in a couple of years (god willing) and I’ll have room to stretch my legs.

Whether the maggies are part of my long-term audio world or not, well, I haven’t decided that yet. I am not a big fan of the way they look in a living space. But in a secret audio hideout, they’re pretty good.

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I was needling Timm, his Maggie’s are enormous, and gorgeous.

Yes, by cubic inch, the LRS aren’t large. But just the face is significantly larger than my on their way out the door Sonus Faber towers which are much better looking. Not that the LRS look bad, but can’t compete with Italian leather and black lacquered sides.

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What are replacing the Sonus faber with?

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With the LRS, which trounced the SF sonically.

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Wow. That says a lot about the LRS. I only heard Sonus faber once many years ago and was quite impressed with how they sounded. I no longer remember the model but their face was a set of vertical strings.

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Wow. That is an amazing statement. But they really do have a bit of magic in them. I have been trying to figure out how I could possibly put them in another room in my house. What color cloth and side rails did you get?

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@timm Grey cloth, cherry wood. I do think amplification synergy is vital, and not easily found. The $650 price is duly offset by the cost of an appropriate amp.

And it’s worth noting that I live on a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific where Target is the pinnacle of HiFi shops. And this is the first time I’ve ever heard a Magnepan. The way it handles music resonates with my sonic sensibilities and chill musical tastes. But I do not have easy access to high end gear for audition, so my sample size is relatively small.

And thanks for the Tin Pan Alley recommendation. Sounds amazing and has a certain come to Jesus quality to it :sunglasses:

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You and me both. Next year for me though.

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I listened to the LRS’s predecessor in my room for a couple weeks before buying my 3.7is. If I couldn’t have afforded the 3.7is, I could have been happy with something like the LRS. You’re right, you need something to supplement the bottom end. A traditional sub-woofer would work. The dealer had them set up that way. I added DWM bass panels to my set up for more bass with the 3.7is. You get a more Magnepan like bass from them. The trouble with them is they’re twice the price of your LRS’s.

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Sonus Faber is excellent, I have mine in the closet. I’m just enthralled with the way Magnepan handles the sound staging. Perhaps it’s just something new to me, thus has grabbed my attention. In 30 years of being an audiophile, I’ve not heard a soundstage like this before. I have the LRS tweeters set to the outside which is less focused and more gigantic. My Sonus Faber did the focused part very well, but they don’t have the gear the LRS is able to achieve in terms of massive, euphonic and airy.

It’s not a universal Magnepan is better than SF thing. It’s only a “better for me now” thing. If past patterns hold true, in a few years I’ll fall in love with something different the internet has summoned.

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It is the nature of panel speakers vs dynamic drivers. I was smitten by ribbon speakers back in the early 1990s, then by electrostatics in the second half of the 1990s. The way they spread sound in a room takes you into the performance or brings the performance into your space call it whatever. Their only drawback was space requirement and fade (change of sound quality) over time in the case of ribbons. Martin Logan always had a dynamic bass driver at the bottom to enhance the overall performance. Apogee had amazing ribbon speakers. In those days, only pure class A power amps cloud drive panels. Today they can be driven by A, AB and D, but A still sounds special with panels. You made a good choice :+1:t2:

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Great choice on colors. Yah the Maggie’s need an amp and Wendell has said that these were made to perform better w better amps. In other words - they aren’t meant to be played with receivers or lightweight electronics.

Planars are a ‘thing’. If you love soundstage you love planars. I obviously like that. Any box u listen to now might be ‘meh’.

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