Bought a pair of Magnepan LRS. Should I buy a Schiit Vidar or Bryston 3B-ST?

I just received my LRS's this week and power them with Schiit Vidar monoblocks and the Freya plus pre-amp.  So far, so good.  Sorry, I don't have a Bryston around to compare.Brian

Hello esch1238,

     I've only read the numerous very good reviews on the Magnepan LRS and haven't yet heard them in person.  It seems like these would be incredible bargains at $650/pair, especially considering it's described as a full-range quasi-ribbon 2-way speaker. 
     I'm very curious how these speakers perform and sound in the mid-range, treble and sound staging aspects.  
     Esch1238, could you give us your impressions thus far of the sound in these areas with the LRS being driven by your Schiit Vidar monoblocks?
     I'm also interested with how you have the LRS positioned in relation to your listening seat and the front wall behind them. Here are some questions I hope you don't mind answering:

How many feet apart are they?
How many feet away is your listening seat?
How many feet away from the front wall are they?
Do they sound very accurate, detailed and natural in the midrange and treble without any harshness or brightness?
Do you perceive their imaging and soundstage as wide and deep with 3D and palpable images?  In other words, does it seem like the musicians are in your room or like you are at the venue?
Are you using subs to compensate for their limited bass?

     The reason I'm so interested in the LRS is that I'm currently using a pair of older 2.7QR Magnepans.  These 3-way planar-magnetic speakers still sound very good but I realize they're now over 30 years old.  The 2.7 QR also have what's described as a quasi-ribbon treble section just like the LRS but I'm thinking, with the LRS utilizing the newest version of their quasi-ribbon, it likely outperforms their version from 30 yrs ago.    
      I believe my current monoblocks would be a good match for the LRS since they sound very natural and have plenty of power, 1,200 watts into 4 ohms, to drive them well just as they drive my fairly inefficient 2.7s very well.   I'm also utilizing a 4-sub distributed bass array system that provides very powerful, smooth, fast, detailed, natural and well integrated bass  with the very fast 2.7QRs that I believe would perform equally well with the very fast LRS. 
     So, my main concern is with your impressions of their midrange and treble performance.  However, I believe the OP, areasonableman, and probably others reading this thread would appreciate a more thorough full-range description of your impressions about how well the combination of the Vidar amps and LRS speakers are performing.  

Thanks,
  Tim

Update: Found a good deal on a local Class D Audio SDS-470C. If I get it I'll post impressions that aren't particularly helpful since I can't find a reasonably priced vidar or 3b-st.

Noble100,

I think you might be disappointing with the LRS.  They are going to sound significantly brighter than the 2.7QR and lack the midbass slam that the 2.7s are capable of.  I ran the 2.7s for a decade and they were great except for being a bit dark, even in comparison to the .5s 1.5s at the time.  Every generation of Maggies has gotten a bit brighter.  You may be better off targeting a 1.7, 3.5, or 3.6.  I will say after going to the 3.5s after multiple QR designs, I wouldn't go back.  The ribbon is more open without sounding harsh.  

Hello areasonableman,

     The Class D Audio SDS-470C is a very good choice for a very good amp at a very reasonable price. It’s got plenty of power to drive the LRS, has balanced and unbalanced inputs and has an accurate and detailed presentation that I’d describe as very neutral; meaning it won’t add or subtract anything from the inputted signals.
I understand that, if you had the money, you’d prefer buying and using the class AB Schiit Vidar in stereo or monoblock amp form but I believe you’ll enjoy the LRS with the Class D Audio SDS-470C amp, too. Here’s a link to some info on the 470 amp:

https://classdaudio.com/sds-470c-class-d-audio-power-amplifier.html

     I’m a big fan of class D amps and have used 3 of them to drive my Magnepan 2.7QRs over the past 5 years:

A Class D Audio SDS-440-CS stereo amp that currently drives a pair of rear surround speakers in my combo 2-ch music and HT system.

An Emerald Physics EM100.2-SE stereo amp that currently drives my center ch speaker in bridged mono configuration.

A pair of D-Sonic M3-600-M monoblocks that currently drive my 2.7s.

     All of these are very good amps. However, I actually agree with you that the class AB Vidar may be a better choice in the long-run than the Class D Audio 470. The reason is the very high Damping Factor of class D amps in general that can be very high, in some cases greater than 1,000. The class AB Vidar has a damping factor of a relatively low 100.
Damping factor is a spec that measures how effective an amp is at controlling the movement of a speaker driver (starting and stopping it) or sound transducer such as a planar-magnetic panel. The higher the number, the more control an amp possesses and vice versa.

     In my experience with all three class D amps, I’d describe their performance on my Magnepans as very good but I perceived the bass performance on them to be exceptionally good, in fact the best bass I had up to then  experienced with the rather large 623 sq. inch planar-magnetic bass panel sections on my 3-way 2.7s. I considered the bass on all three as very powerful, detailed, dynamic, perhaps a bit exaggerated and overly taut initially but discovered soon after that these bass attributes were the result of the excessively high damping factors on my class D amps. Even though I admittedly enjoyed the sound of the bass, I soon discovered that the bass was exaggerated, truncated bass note decays and didn’t faithfully reproduce the bass contained on the recordings.
     I only discovered this because I had the good fortune to purchase an Audio Kinesis DEBRA distributed bass array (DBA) system about 3 years ago. This consists of four 1’ x1’ x 2’ 44lb. subs with 10" long-throw aluminum woofers strategically placed in the room with all subs powered by a 1,000 watt class AB amp/control unit.
     Once I installed and heard the DEBRA’s powerful, dynamic and detailed bass, that was not exaggerated and didn’t truncate bass note decays, I perceived the bass as more accurate, natural and understood that this system was more faithfully reproducing the bass contained on the recordings.
     My intent of relating my experiences with class D amps is just to make you and others aware of this tendency with at least my class D amps to exaggerate the bass content. Other than this tendency, I really appreciate and enjoy the accurate and neutral presentation of my class D amps.

     My intention is not to discourage you or anyone from trying or using good class D amps in their systems. As I’ve stated, I actually enjoyed the exaggerated bass on my Magnepans and I believe others might too. Perhaps the LRS could use a bit of a bass boost since they’re only rated to extend to 50 Hz. If you prefer more accurate bass, you may want to save up for the Vidar. 


     Here’s a REDDIT link to some comments on the Vidar’s relatively low damping factor of 100:
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7nig0e/schiit_vidar_review_from_the_audiophool/#bottom-...

    Here’s a link to another positive review on the Vidar:
https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/schiit-vidar-amplifier/


Tim