Magnepans or...Martin Logan

Johnto, Thank You !

What model of Parasound Integrated did you use ?

Local alternatives are far & beyond and expensive. Better to import !

Thanks again !

Man, I am late to the game. I hope you found happiness in your purchase whatever you got!

I have owned about 5 pairs of Martin Logans. I kept chasing the sound because it was never right for me so I upgraded and upgraded and upgraded. Last year, I purchased the LRS on a whim. I have been using some Thiel CS 2.4’s but at the price of the LRS I thought it would be fun to try a maggie in my system.

Well, long story short, the Thiels are boxed up. I am astonished how well the Magnepans sound. Their bass imo is pretty strong for a panel. I mean I dont recall any martin logan I ever owned having the same amount of texture. Some of the larger Martin Logans will produce some reasonable bass, but it always sound like the bass is turned down vs the electrostat. That is not the case with the Magnepans. And I mean, I fully expected the Maggies to sound "thin" like martin logans...but they don’t at all.

I should preface that I sold Martin Logans for about 10 years. I was trained at their HQ in Lawrence Kansas. They are imo a party speaker. I mean not in the same way Klipsch is a party speaker, but I mean a show off speaker. They are more about showing off. Magnepans are all heart, all soul. Its all about the music.

I don’t mean to disparage Martin Logans, they are really nice speakers but I can see now why I lost so many sales against Magnepans.

The only Martin Logan speaker that "wow’d" me, was the Statement we heard at Gayle’s house. Those were pretty amazing, but any speaker that is a solid down payment on a house should be.

EDIT: I should state also though. I have a Pass Labs X-150.5. It has a bias meter on it that shows you when you are moving out of class A and into AB. It's rarely ever moved in the 15 years I have had the amp. The Magnepans make it dance like a techno song. 

I can't say about the other Magnepans, but the LRS are extremely inefficient and require a BEAST amplifier. The Pass is rated at 300x2 into 4 ohms, but they are extremely conservative in their ratings. Its actual output is closer to a 250w 8 ohm/500w 4 ohm amp....and I dont even listen that loud.

Amplifiers. Given where you are, and the difficulties of shipping back to the factory for service, I would suggest Bryston. I have owned three, which I kept until I went DIY. They are a perfect match for Magnepan, especially the SST (personal experience) and the SST cubed (so I'm told).

They are close to, but not at, the state of the art, and are built like tanks. Actually, better. Bryston has a 20 (yes twenty) year warrantee - which tank has a guarantee like that? Not that you'll need it (the Bryston warrantee - don't know about the tank).

The net is full of Bryston stories, and I doubt if even one of them is negative. I myself shifted one (4B SST) when it was turned on, and shorted the outputs against an aluminum chassis. Sparks sparks! Ozone!  Basically, I was using the amp as an arc welder.

The amp shut down immediately. Twenty minutes later it restarted - it was undamaged. Try that with anything else.