MY Magna Risers (Multi Riser Mk 7) arrived on Saturday (Ordered Feb 22). While I was expecting a spectacular piece of kit, I was completely bowled over by the incredible craftsmanship, unbelievable packaging—lovingly and carefully packaged. What a treat to do business with Robert and Shauna.
My Maggie LRS’ (ordered Feb 16) are finally en route from Minnesota as we speak, and come Friday afternoon I will begin my long “week” of testing and speaker placement. My wife will be away from home for a few days in early August (when all should be broken in) and I can give the system the listening that it deserves, at the volume it requires!
Stay tuned.
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Agree wholeheartedly on Robert and his products.
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Yes, opening the MagnaRiser box is quite a treat. The original stands have a tendency to flap in a disconcerting way, and MagnaRiser fixes that. I frequently listen to music while cooking and Rob recommended some inexpensive shims from Home Depot to achieve the 6 degree tilt.
I haven’t found the LRS to be that fussy about placement. The main thing being away from the back wall, but that’s true if most speakers.
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Good luck with the Maggies and the new risers. You definitely will hear the difference when you get them off the floor and stiffen them as well. As these stands are fairly tall, be sure to keep your ear on
level with the center of the diaphragm. I think this is where they sound best but I could also be drinking my own bath water.
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Thanks. Following Robert’s advice I am going to start with OEM stands for a while, and then bring in the Magna Risers. Final placement etc., will happen when the speakers are all burnt in with the Risers.
To follow up on my earlier comments. I most often listen to music while cooking. I have it arranged so the kitchen is in the middle of the soundstage. In doing so, I’m standing up. Robert had suggested using plastic shims from Home Depot to achieve a tilt so that my head would be in the middle of the LRS/MagnaRiser sound field. I found the shims a bit wonky. However, 2/3” thick felt furniture sliders have been perfect. Put a Herbie slider under the back of the MagnaRiser. And then 2 felt furniture sliders under the front of the stand to achieve a 3 degree tilt, or 3 sliders for a 6 degree tilt. The results have been great, amazing. And it’s easy enough to slide the speakers around. And that’s my MagnaRiser cooking hack!
My Magnepan LRS’ arrived on Friday, safe and sound (pun intended!) After an hour to remove my old speakers and assemble the LRS’ I was in business. Aware that I had simply placed them close to where my old speakers sat, and that they were straight out of the box, I was nonetheless simply blown away by the sound. These are stunning instruments that so far have exceeded my expectations for them! Even my wife loves the sound, and finds them very attractive too.
I have about 15+ hours on them and have made a few tweaks to their placement; they now sit on factory stands about 50” from the front wall, no toe in and with the tweeters on the outside. When my wife leaves this weekend to visit our daughter for a couple of weeks I will put on the Magna Riser Mk 7 stands, work on seeking the best sound and listen to them at the volumes they were designed for! Even now, the soundstage is wide, deep, transparent and authoritative. Piano and strings especially sound absolutely amazing.
It was well worth the wait for the LRS’ and Magna Risers; about 22 weeks, but with frequent and informative correspondence. To have something individually crafted, and not mass-produced by faceless “workers” is a real honor. Both Magnepan and Magna Riser do great work and my thanks to all involved.
Robert and Shauna Raus are amazing to work with—such passion! Eric at Magnepan is quite the character and so helpful. After I sent him a thank-you email this morning I got a call from the legendary Wendell Diller (Maggies longtime head of sales, marketing, and product development) we talked about lots of things for over an hour!
PS Audio, Magna Risers and Magnepan—three of a kind and ever so dedicated.
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Haha. Nice! Wendell is awesome.
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Fabulous!! Congrats. They are remarkable speakers. I initially experienced them with a Hegel H90 amp and a Border Patrol SE-i Dac. Have since upgraded to the Marantz reference line which has shown me yet more of how great the LRS are - spooky good. I have a few months left before my trade in window closes, during which I could trade in the LRS and get full credit towards the .7’s or 1.7i’s. The LRS sound so good, honestly see no reason to go to the trouble. At $650, has to be one the all time great HiFi bargains.
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They are NOT getting my LRs’ back! NO sir!
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Yesterday I hit 50 hours of burn in on the Maggies, as Rob had recommended, and my wife left for 2 weeks, so . . .
On with the Multi Risers Mk 7s, Paul’s CD in the CD player and time to get to work.
First impressions with the Mk 7s is tighter sound, more authority, more depth and width, and more dynamic range. Piano, cello, and percussion are so real.
Spent all day—tweeters in, tweeters out, toe in, no toe in, toe out, 2,3 4, 4.5 feet from wall, etc., etc., low position, high position. Then BAM I was there:
Speakers are 74" apart (inside edge to inside edge) and about 7 feet from listening spot (diagonal distance to inside edge), 45" from front wall, 22.5" from side. High position, tweeters outside, no toe. Music is immersive and detailed. as noted above it is also taller. At the sweet-spot vocals just drop into place (especially well-recorded live shows), vocals project so well. Singers, and instruments are so well separated. Bass is tight, rich and adequate for me and my music. Even NPR news on the radio sounds great!
I find that with the Magna Risers the system sounds fabulous at low volumes too—something Rob had said the MK 7s were great for!
Now back to listening!
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Aloha from Oahu! I am about to take the LRS plunge. Where did you purchase the LRS? No dealers in Hawaii and the Magenpan factory said they don’t ship to Hawaii so I was directed to a shop in San Diego. We’ll see how it goes.
Direct from Magnaplan in MN. You fill out an online form on their website and in a day or so Eric will get back to you. BUT, Hawaii is different, you need to contact Eric Norgaarden marketing@magnepan.com or (651) 262-1936 and ask nicely.
dansingsea (nov '20 in this post)was able to have them shipped to him in Hawaii. Use him as a “reference”, play the PS Audio Forum card - - Eric has worked with so many of us.
Don’t forget to check out MagnaRisers too.
Thanks! I did speak to Eric and he recommended some dealers in San Diego who have existing orders in the pipe. He said they don’t ship to Hawaii…(sigh) the price we pay for paradise. Looking forward to getting my grubby little hands on a pair. Great discussion by the way. Will definitely look into stands.
Welcome and let us know how it goes!
As someone who lived very happily with MG1s for twenty years, and who is now just starting a supremely happy year 3 with my .7s, I have to believe you’re going to love the LRS to death.
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I know this is the LRS thread, but i kinda think of it as a general Magnepan thread.
They always say Maggies need lots of power, or current, or whatever. I’ve been running them in my dungeon system with Bel Canto preamp and Ref500M monoblocks (250W 8 Ohms, and 500W 4 Ohms), and they sounded just fine. (I replied to my own post, so if you click that, I think you should be able to see the Bel Cantos.)
But I just wasn’t listening very often. Something just wasn’t grabbing me. My old Audiolab 8000A integrated was just sitting idle, so I thought why not try it…(It’s only 60W into 8 ohms.)
now, it’s a small room, but the Audiolab gets the maggies plenty loud (and the volume knob is only at 10 or 11 o’clock).
And the sound is just so much warmer. No loss of detail, but where the Bel Cantos seemed, ahdunno, austere maybe, the Audiolab is rich and inviting. We could get into the class-D thing, certainly, and I will admit, maybe there’s something to it for me. But I think the Bel Cantos can work great with the right speakers.
Sometimes, yeah, it’s just “different” – and sometimes, our ears like things to be “different”.
Anyway, only just putting it out there not to be afraid if you have an amp that’s not a million watts per channel and want to run it with magnepans. It might surprise you. (Can’t run my REL’s high-level tho. Have to use the pre-outs on the Audiolab and go low-level. Works fine tho.)
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Hi, Guys. I just stumbled onto they thread by pure accident while browsing other stuff. WRT the LRS, everything you have heard is right on. Amazing speakers, but even more amazing with the RIGHT woofer. Robert Raus and I have collaborated on a new dipole woofer matched via DSP to the LRS. My company, VPE Electrodynamics, has a product you can buy factory direct called The Little Dipole Woofer (LDW) Model 1 DSP. It uses a 10" aluminum cone woofer and a 250W Class D DSP amplifier in a unique cabinet to create truly seamless match to the LRS. The LDW are available factory direct at www.vpeelectrodynamics.com. A picture of the LRS mated to the LDW Model 1 DSP and the Magna Riser Multi-Riser Mk. 7 stands is presented below. The LDW User’s Manual is available at the website and tells our story. You can also get a good review of everything at “The Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity” webzine by Carlo Lo Raso, who gave them a workout.
For those of you attending AXPONA 2022 in April. Robert and I will be exhibiting our wares along with Jason Stoddard’s Schiit Freya S and Vidar amplification. Come see us in the EXPO Hall, space 9211.
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The BEST amp I have heard with the LRS is my vintage Pass Aleph 5 (90W into 4 ohms) which is 2nd order harmonic distortion dominant. They really seem like a match made in Heaven. Aleph’s are like Hen’s teeth these days, but the current 60W Pass Labs amps would probably work just as well, even though they are a bit pricy.