Magnepan + live music = 🔥

I have the Magnepans. 7's that purchased recently. l let them break in for approximately 200 hours before any critical listening  I have mine position 4 feet from the wall, 7 feet apart with slight toe in They are 10 feet from my listening position  l only have room for one sub which is the SVS Ultra 13 Originally l used my VAC PA 100 100 tube amp/ ARC LS 15 tube pre amp Exogal external DAC and OPPO BD 105 blu ray player. My streaming source is the Audiolab 6000N The Maggie's sounded magical!  I thought maybe l should try switching out the VAC and insert my Spectron musical MK ll class D amp  that weights 54 lbs. As you know Maggie's love watts/current and this amp gives it in spades 500watts@8ohm 650@4ohms &1,200@ 1ohms! The Spectron will produce 65 amps for 500 milliseconds. I typically listen to all kinds of music at 75/80 db and l must say the energy, inner detail, soundstage and dynamics almost put me into a live event!  I'm amazed every time l listen for money spent So if you can feed your Maggie's good clean unadulterated power they will really come alive

I know it's a YouTube video done with my handheld Samsung S10 but it will still give you some indication of the dynamics of the Maggie's with a good high current amp
Watch "Magnepan .7's & audio system" on YouTube https://youtu.be/WmHjTmDRO88

Hello bwang29,

     I think mijostyn gave a very good summary of the .7s overall performance characteristics. I’ve never owned the .7s but I’ve listened to them, know they’re very good and are an extreme bargain for their price. I’ve also owned various models of slightly larger Magnepan panels in my system over the past 30 yrs, so I’m fairly familiar with their general strengths and weaknesses.
     It seems like you’ve already discovered their many midrange, treble and stereo imaging strengths but are just beginning to experience their main weaknesses of poor bass impact and poor bass dynamics performance. I’ve noticed over the years, on various audio forums, that many Magnepan owners are willing to accept or justify this overall poor bass performance by convincing themselves that it’s actually a matter of preferring bass quality over bass quantity or as an unfortunate but required compromise, or cost of entry, to the Magnepan/planar-magnetic world of very high quality midrange, treble and stereo imaging performance.
     Apparently just like you, however, I’m not willing to accept, justify, exchange, compromise or sacrifice the benefits of high quality bass impact and bass dynamics performance for the benefits of high quality midrange, treble and stereo imaging performance. Call me crazy, but I prefer to enjoy music and HT surround sound audio sources reproduced in a manner that is as full range and high quality as possible.
     Based on my 40+ years experience of building home audio systems, I've found that the high quality reproduction of the bottom 2 octaves, from about 16 to 32 Hz, is what distinguishes a decent hi-fi system from one that is felt as well as heard, is so visceral, dynamic and palpable, that one perceives the musicians as realistically playing in the room or perceives being very realistically transported to the musical venue itself with a good seat.
     This has consistently been my goal, I believe it’s your goal and I’ve only been able to achieve it successfully thus far by incorporating independently and strategically positioned subs in my room. I currently utilize the Audio Kinesis 4-sub complete kit, that mijostyn suggested, which relies upon positioning the 4 moderately sized subs in a distributed bass array (DBA) configuration in the room.
     This has provided near state of the art bass performance and seamless integration with my current and previous models of Magnepan panels in my room. I strongly believe this A K Swarm bass system would be an ideal solution for you and your .7s, here’s a link to a very accurate review of it:

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/audiokinesis-swarm-subwoofer-system/

     I don’t know, however, how well the $3,200 Swarm system fits your budget. If you prefer a less expensive but still good solution for better bass at a single designated listening seat, I could describe how to utilize, properly position and configure a pair of good quality subs to accomplish this.

Let me know,
Tim

My Vidar mono blocks just arrived, and the magpan's mid and upper lows opened up a whole lot and there are more "meat" in the sound all around. 
Then I did the unthinkable, I paired .7 up with a Klipsch heresy iv through another two class A amps playing at around half the volume of the Maggie and now I'm in heaven.... 

Bwang,

Can you provide an update on your experience with The Vidar mono blocks on the Maggies?  I am thinking of going this route with the LRS.  Thanks.