For all Magnepan speakers
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I could have had a Maggie.
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Nothing, and I mean NOTHING could have prepared me for how much more detailed and spacious the LRS+ is compared to the LRS. I’ve only been listening for 15 minutes but holy fucking shit I did not expect this big of a jump over the regular LRS. My bedroom sounds like an amphitheater. Maybe I’ll do a writeup, but for right now, I am just gonna settle down with a drink, some fat dabs, and a playlist. I could not be happier right now.
Also, the imaging is significantly sharper than the LRS.
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Consider yourself committed. Cant back out now.
What is the full chain btw?
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Gustard U18>Pontus II>Soloist 3xp (just for preamp reasons)>Parasound A21+ currently. Might swap some stuff around for testing, but this is just stupid good as is.
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Amazing! Next thing i have to ask about is the listening space, I am still assuming you need a decent chunk of open space in front and behind.
Fully theater curtained room, about 4 feet from the wall. I put them into the living room at first and the reflections kinda destroy the staging and imaging. The theater curtains drastically change how they behave.
Should also mention they’re on a pair of Magna Risers Multi Risers. Haven’t heard them on the stock stands but from what everyone says, the Magna Risers help a lot.
The Magna Risers came with a little crossover piece that’s supposed to replace the stock crossover but I didn’t install it, was just in a rush to hear them but I’ll plug it in later tonight.
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Very nice, and very jealous. Cant wait yo hear more.
So small note. Nothing definitive or meant to mean anything, and honestly they sounded fucking incredible while it worked, but the living room with a chinese monoblock setup just both channel fried at the same time driving the LRS+. It was honestly funny to have happen and nothing bad happened to the speakers, but it was eye opening about the power draw. Shouldn’t be super high but here I am.
Back to the Parasound.
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Holy jeez. I always imagine those things being a big pop and sparks with the lights flickering. But its usually just a sizzle and smell of smoke. I am happy to hear the speakers survived.
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it was hilariously gradual. Literally nothing to report unfortunately.
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Aww shucks. Not even a fireworks show for your loss.
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I fuckin wish. I never get anything entertaining.
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:looks back at your listed speaker system: nope very dull around you i suppose.
Ok so there have been a couple times when I thought there was something totally fucked about the imaging but I think these are just so brutally honest about L/R separation (especially with monoblocks) that they totally destroy anything that isn’t mixed flawlessly. They’re the most unforgiving transducers of any type I’ve ever owned completely to a fault. I do have them set up really well to enjoy most things I listen to but holy shit they sound like total dog shit when a stereo mix isn’t well thought out and mastered accordingly. It’s a nightmare on certain tracks, the center image that could exist vaguely on most speakers comes directly from the left or right speaker with no question of placement. Basically if 100% of any sound is coming from left or right it comes from that speaker directly. If it has even 2% mixed to the right speaker it seems like it’s floating somewhere near the left speaker but not on it and it’s crazy how picky they are but if something is mixed well it’s a full 3D soundscape coming just from the 2 LRS+ and pair of subs like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Nature documentaries mixed in 2 channel have messed with my mind on a really big level because of these speakers ability to throw sounds significantly further than they’re placed from me and a crazy ability to place sounds above and behind me in an exact spot. Jungle settings in nature documentaries with birds making all kinds of noise all around you in absolutely breathtaking. It’s not something I was prepared for. I’m using them as a bedroom speaker right now so its movies and shows I watch every single day in addition to music and the same thing applies to movies and shows that try to overemphasize that far left or far right pan with zero mixed into the other channel is where everything falls apart and it’s painfully obvious when you can see what’s going on. On the flip side, laying in bed and playing games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the game audio is basically flawlessly mixed and everything is so absurdly well put in it’s place that it’s like I’m standing in the same close space as people in the game. It’s an almost creepy experience because the people in games sound so absurdly natural that you can hear their lips smacking and swallowing sounds and it’s kinda off-putting lol. Really really immersive though and is honestly the single thing I’ve been looking for in my life to enjoy single player story games again which I totally understand is a really weird and uncommon thing to appreciate about these speakers, but hey, it’s 2022 and technology exists alongside music, sue me.
Getting back to well recorded orchestral music, the placement accuracy is insane. I’ve owned really really good imaging speakers and more importantly, nearfield bookshelves like LS50 Metas and these things have a depth accuracy that makes the LS50 Metas sound like a joke. The Metas image sharper, but only slightly and I mean very slightly which should say something because those things image better in a nearfield with monoblocks than most headphones do. Headphones usually have the advantage of better depth accuracy than the Metas (at least good planars anyways) but these speakers seem to have very near or at least an acceptable amount of the level of the LS50 Metas imaging but with drastically larger width CAPABILITY (way larger when called for but normally pretty neutral and average width, most importantly never exaggerated) and drastically deeper stage with no skew to the closeness needed for vocals that need to be up front which makes me think their staging isn’t a trick but more of an ability to properly convey placement. The amount of detail they have is very obviously adding to the imaging and staging accuracy and I’ve even tested this by adding shitty sources and cutting bitrate and things fall apart. The detail is what pulls their coherency and natural timbre together, I’m almost positive. They have an absolutely epic amount of room information.
These things are a fucking trip. The LRS were cool and seemed almost like a parlor trick like the HD800s, but these things are like that and then some but proper and accurate with a totally natural feel, nothing seems faked at all, even weird electronic music has an insanely natural sound that makes it seem almost acoustic but not in the way you’d typically think by just being smooth or overly reverby. Just somehow right.
Idk, I’ll form full different thoughts once I go over notes, this is just me kinda hitting a wow moment after the honeymoon phase ran out and made me realize again that these are really something special. I don’t think there’s a snowballs chance in hell you can get this kind of experience anywhere for $1100 ($1400 with the Manga Risers Multi Risers and I guess you need subs too and I have a feeling I got lucky with the sub pairing being competent enough for the accuracy these speakers put out) but I’d be totally willing to try anything. Also, DSP can really do some miracles with the sub time alignment and is basically mandatory from what I can tell unless maybe you use dual opposed subs lined up with the woofers front to back next to the driver center point of the speakers, but that’s the only way I could see this working with the dipole timing of the LRS+.
I’ll work on a proper write-up but I’m not a writer so it’ll take a while before I feel like it doesn’t make me come across as a total idiot.
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Went to my local Hegel dealer yesterday and although I liked the products their pricing was no beuno. They had a demo H190 but it wasn’t at market price. I couldn’ hear it with a 1.7i but did hear it with the old LRS. It’s a pretty sweet amp but I’m wondering for the price if I can do “better” 
3200 on promo now which seems ok if I buy online:
I’ll continue to research but perhaps I need to go with separate pre/power amps if spending this kind of $.
I think for now I’ll stick with solid state so tubes are out… I’ll try to research a bit more on magenepan forum what others are using. I know the “go tos” are typically Hegel, Bryston, and sometimes the Rogue hybrids.
I wouldn’t recommend it at this price level, I wouldn’t personally look outside integrates until you get into $10K+ new for the combination, and I might look at integrated’s even higher than that.
There are advantages to separates, mostly around thermals that might make them make sense earlier if you’re looking for a LOT of power.
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It may be worth getting SS now for the power and then down the line adding a tube pre. A local guy did that for his maggies (i think it was the model the 1.7 replaced) and he said he refused to live without them. He even crammed them into a small basement and loved them, though he admitted the room could make it way better.
I just wouldnt underestimate the power a good pre can have.
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I’m not sure if maybe my room is just set up better than the demo room I tried them in but I brought my Parasound A21+ to a shop to demo a bunch of Maggies on (I think it was basically all of them up through the 20.7) since it’s what I have to work with and the shop had them on an H190 and I much preferred the Parasound for the dynamics it brought out of the Maggies. The H190 was smoother but personally Maggies are a little too smooth for me to begin with (which is one of the really strong suits of the LRS+, significantly more treble extension than literally every other Maggie 20.7 and under and bass seems like it goes down to around 60hz-ish) but idk I guess a lot of people like the Hegel stuff for Maggies but it just didn’t click with me. Could also not matter nearly as much with DSP though I guess but so far I’m only using DSP to time align the subs, not correct tuning.
Side note, I think it never stuck out until tonight, but I think the LRS+ are the most completely natural timbre I’ve ever heard in any transducer of any kind. Maybe it just didn’t stick out because it was a complete and total lack of a problem.
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