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General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

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RE: Magnepan LRS are the king of low price speakers ,,,,, prove me wrong

Posted by RGA on October 24, 2021 at 18:36:25:
That was the problem with the KEF LS-50 - also a speaker that is tough to drive properly so while the speaker is cheapish you need to spend more on the amplifier to get the best from them such that the overall price of the speaker/amp makes it not such a great deal.

You can get some Wyred4Sound Class D amps with sufficient power for $2k (preamp and monoblocks) and probably other makers for less. So it's not too outrageous with a $700. So let's say a $3k system with taxes and shipping.

Then look at other speakers/amp combinations you could put together for $3k to see how what can be done.

OTOH SS power on the used market is pretty cheap and so buying a second-hand amp is the way to go - Power amps have no moving parts and can last decades trouble-free. Get a Used Rotel RB 1090 for cheap (stable to 1 ohm I believe) and so it just takes a look around.

I am not a huge fan of Magnepan myself as I was directly comparing them to a 2 way box at Soundhounds in Victoria BC - a pretty big panel dealer selling Quad/Magnepan/Finale/Martin Logan/Acoustat/(used Apogees) so I was fortunate to hear these speakers with various SS and Tube and even SET amplifiers. I found the tube amps sounded the best on some of these so it is somewhat surprising when I read people always suggesting big power SS. I heard the flagship Brystons on a set of Magnepan 1.7 yet the 18 watt SEP tube amp sounded much better as did a 211 SET (Purple amp that's not coming to my mind at the moment). They also sounded better with Quad that the SS amps they carry.