As mentioned, I have the Hegel H90 now. It just gets so hot running the LRS. I’ve cured the heat with an AC Infinity component sized fan set to 85 degrees in Smart mode. The fan is able to prevent the temperature from ever going above 85.
So technically, this upgrade is for “medical reasons”. Not to be confused with the, er, upgrade bug.
I’ve conversed with Hegel about this, and they say all is good, but that they recommend at least the H190 for Maggies, which costs $4000 and has a dac I don’t need.
This is one downside of the LRS. Yes, they are $650, but it’s a Trojan horse when it comes to amplification costs. Yay, $650 super speakers, but needs a $4000 amp.
My Hegel H90 sounds great with the LRS, but it’s one of a small handful of lower cost amps that can drive them. It wipes wide swaths of interesting amps off the map.
From 1999 to 2015 I had the exact same system. Meadowlark Audio’s Kestral Hot Rods, Audio Refinement Complete integrated (YBA), and an Ah! Tjeob CD player. I only added a small HRT streamer to listen to music played through the Mac. That was it, one upgrade in 16 years.
And then I discovered audiophile Internet forums. Oy vey. Now I’ve become an ever hungry audiophile Cookie Monster.
I’m tempted to do a free trial with the Marantz, for field research purposes only
From about 2012 until fall of '19 I had Kestrel IIs. Still do, as a matter of fact. They’ve just been sidelined by my .7s for the last year and a half. They’re still great speakers, IMO.
It sounded good, it really did. The room that the maggies are in is small, so I didn’t need tons of power to drive them. But it was plenty loud, and it didn’t seem like the Sphinx was breaking a sweat.
I upgraded the tubes to Brimar something something from Upscale, and I think it added to the fullness/depth of things, ahdunno. I have very little patience to swap in and swap out and listen to the same passage again and again to discern a difference.
The Bel Canto stuff (also class D) is better, I think. More power and heft in those monos.
I shouldn’t bogart this thread to be all-magnepan-encompassing, but the .7’s are close
Anyway, i took notice that some of you were using RELs to great benefit with your Maggies. My dungeon, where the maggies are, doesn’t have a sub in it. Well it’s not a dungeon, but it’s a small room in the basement.
I made the mistake (or brilliant move) of bringing my living-room pair of REL T5i’s down to that space, and trying the high-level inputs. (I’m using the low-level-input RCA connection upstairs, but I have learned that the Bel Canto monoblocks like the high-level inputs, so I thought I’d give it a shot.)
I will say the magnepans do bass pretty well. Not super low, but I must say they keep things fairly tight and it sounds good. (I don’t listen to too much deep deep bass, but sometimes…)
But the RELs realllly make it sound amazing down there. Like, really amazing.
I really don’t want to buy more stuff. I could just schlepp them downstairs every time I want to listen, right?
They do sound good upstairs, but I’ll experiment for sure.
Upstairs living room system is kinda whole house, although it’s nice, with harbeth 30.2’s.
There are other speakers set up to play at the same time, like when entertaining (what’s that?), cooking, morning newspaper, cleaning, yada yada… I might not have volume too high, so the subs fill in the low-volume gaps.
I just sold a turntable, so I’m sure I can find a way to justify getting another pair of T5i’s!
Might wait until fall tho, as the basement isn’t the place I wanna spend my summer.
