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Puzzled about reasons why there seems to be no shortage of used planner speakers

All the over the top reviews of the Magnepan LRS has awakened the old puzzlement of how good are my DIY speakers and is it worth it to make a change?

I am very satisfied with my current system as far as my analog sources go.  I have a Denon direct drive turntable in a custom plinth, a Jelco tone arm  and a Transfiguration Temper Supreme cartridge. The phono pre is the octal version of the Hagerman Coronet with Lundahl step up transformers. I'm using a Toshiba HD DVD player for playing CD's. I'm using a Rotel RSP-1098 in analogue bypass for all sources. My amp is a VTL 50/50 tube amp.

My speakers are transmission line and utilizing parts from North Creek including hand wound coils and Harmony capacitors. Any one who has heard them has been impressed with them and with one being brought to tears of joy having never heard his favorite song played through a system such as mine.

That leaves me with a dilemma. If I go with the LRS, I will have to sell the VTL amp to get a used amp that can power the LRS. 

What is troubling me is seeing so many used planar speakers for sale on Ebay and Audiogon. Is that because they grow tired of them, or feel a need to try something new? Or are they upgrading to another planar speaker, or all of these reasons?
 
I'd like to hear from those that sold or are selling their planar speakers. 

I've only ever heard one planar speaker in my life and that was for about 5 minutes when I was taking my daughter through one of Seattle's high end stores to let her hear the differences between between differing levels of quality speakers as she was planning to get a her own system in the near future.  I've never heard a Maggie.

I don't want to get in the position of having sold my VTL to make this change and winding up with probably an amplifier that really doesn't come up to the same level quality and would most likely be a SS amp.

My goal here is to try get the best information I can from those that felt the need make similar decisions. I am retired now and living on a fixed income in a town in New Mexico (Las Cruses) that has no real Hi-end stores.

Any offers from anyone locally to let me hear their system would be most appreciated.  
rogue_angel
josh358
286 posts
 
@noromance,

The room was too small for five Maggies, and it was suffering from the midrange emphasis that bedevilled the rooms at Axpona. I've heard that Exasound and Magnepan are planning to get a larger room next year.


josh358
286 posts
 
wumwhat3,

According to Magnepan, the LRS does dip below 4 ohms, but it doesn't seem to be the amp destroyer that the 1 ohm Scintilla was! Steve Guttenburg tried them with a receiver with poor results, but a Schiit Vidar drove them well (only $700) and he had even better results with his Pass.

Like the x.7 Maggies, which also have an impedance dip, a decent high current audiophile amp that can nearly double power into 4 ohms should work well. When I heard them at AXPONA they were being driven by a prototype 150 watt/channel Magnepan amp and they sounded great.
josh358
286 posts
 
rogue_angel, the LRS was designed precisely for people like you who weren't close to a dealer. Magnepan sells them at near cost with a generous return policy so that you can try them at home. The purpose of the program is to give people a taste of the planar sound. Some people will keep the LRS's for life, but others will want deeper bass, higher levels, or the true ribbon tweeter and move up to the larger Maggies.

One of their main challenges as a company is that people don't buy big planars unless they've heard the sound, and with fewer high end dealers in the country, fewer people have a chance to do that. Wendell Diller, Magnepan's director of marketing, told me he hopes that even people who own $20,000 speakers will try them, again, to get an idea of what the larger models can do.
acousticrat33
24 posts
 
My Acoustat 22s are still going great...10 year old Martin Logans too, ditto 20 year old Monsoon desktop planar magnetics. I still feel shorted listening to box and cones - they lack so much, why waste my money? Just to test folding ribbons I got the close-out Emotiva B1s 2 weeks ago - I am thinking I will make very good use of them!
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