Burning Sounds
Addicted to Fun and Learning
First of all a big thank you to Amir for a Herculean effort here! And to the owner for sending them in.
As a 30+ years Magneplanar owner some of the results such as the lobing and inconsistent imaging are what I would have expected. I still have a pair of what are the grandaddy of these - MG1s - they are bass shy, and if you stand up the highs disappear - so much for progress! However, I suspect @dreite is correct in his assessment of the poor bass measurements of the LSR - it doesn't really make sense that they are worse than my ancient MG1s.
I also have MG2.5Rs which are completely different with a true ribbon that comes in at 1Khz. Mine originally had a 2nd/3rd order x-over, not a first order as Stereophile's review states. If Stereophile are correct on the unit they measured, then I suspect Magnepan may have changed from the first order x-over as soon as they got reports of destroyed ribbons. Mine are currently active with a LR4 crossover which provides much more protection for the ribbon. With the addition of a Linkwitz dipole bass they can go plenty loud with rock music and provide a real sense of scale - The Who live at Leeds at 105dB peaks sounds pretty good to me. Expensive amps are most certainly not required as long as they provide plenty of current. And they can make less than stellar recordings sound quite pleasant. But, yes they have their flaws - images can be way too large - drummers with 10 foot arms comes to mind. Images can stick to the panels which I find annoying. But they cost me £500 12 years ago. I can't think of any box speaker that comes close at that price. Here's an in-room distortion measurement of my MG2.5Rs from a couple of years ago.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/.../speakers-distortion.5920/page-14#post-133785
I hope one day Amir gets to measure one of the Linkwitz speakers (or perhaps a Gradient speaker) - certainly the LX521 is a considerable step up in every area from my MG2.5Rs.
As a 30+ years Magneplanar owner some of the results such as the lobing and inconsistent imaging are what I would have expected. I still have a pair of what are the grandaddy of these - MG1s - they are bass shy, and if you stand up the highs disappear - so much for progress! However, I suspect @dreite is correct in his assessment of the poor bass measurements of the LSR - it doesn't really make sense that they are worse than my ancient MG1s.
I also have MG2.5Rs which are completely different with a true ribbon that comes in at 1Khz. Mine originally had a 2nd/3rd order x-over, not a first order as Stereophile's review states. If Stereophile are correct on the unit they measured, then I suspect Magnepan may have changed from the first order x-over as soon as they got reports of destroyed ribbons. Mine are currently active with a LR4 crossover which provides much more protection for the ribbon. With the addition of a Linkwitz dipole bass they can go plenty loud with rock music and provide a real sense of scale - The Who live at Leeds at 105dB peaks sounds pretty good to me. Expensive amps are most certainly not required as long as they provide plenty of current. And they can make less than stellar recordings sound quite pleasant. But, yes they have their flaws - images can be way too large - drummers with 10 foot arms comes to mind. Images can stick to the panels which I find annoying. But they cost me £500 12 years ago. I can't think of any box speaker that comes close at that price. Here's an in-room distortion measurement of my MG2.5Rs from a couple of years ago.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/.../speakers-distortion.5920/page-14#post-133785
I hope one day Amir gets to measure one of the Linkwitz speakers (or perhaps a Gradient speaker) - certainly the LX521 is a considerable step up in every area from my MG2.5Rs.