Question about amplification for new Magnepan LRS speakers

[David Harper]

I'm driving the LRS speakers with a Schiit Vidar amp. maggies+ amp= about 1500 $. This is what makes the sound quality so good. Minimal waste of money for true audiophile sound. Less than some placebo audiots pay for wires.

 

[Krz123]

I have Mytek Brooklyn as a preamp and am driving my LRS with great success with Emotiva UPA-1 Monoblocks (350w@4 ohm). Loud, clean, air between notes, phenomenal soundstage, (although sweet spot is limited due to my small room).
I found a pair on Craigslist for $400. I know there are MANY MANY more higher end options with better wiring, circuitry, etc. But price per, I can’t imagine much better out there for what I understand the magnepan wishes to consume. Just my humble and limited experience....

 

[yllanos]

Just got my new maggie LRS speakers. Everything you say is my experience exactly. I have a Yammy Avr but I bought a new Schiit Vidar amp just for the maggies. My LRS speakers are smaller than yours so I needed a good powered sub my speakers only go down to 50hz. The highs are the best I ever heard with the maggies. They won't play as loud as what I'm used to but that's OK the sound quality is well worth the tradeoff. Also the maggies are very intolerant of low-quality mp3 music. It sounds like sh!t. High quality source material sounds amazing. Also I love the dipole sound. It gives the music a sense of air and space like I've never heard before. My kitty has ignored them completely so far but I made covers for them out of the original cardboard packing they came in which I slip over them when I leave the house just in case. They do take some getting used to. They're a trade-off; sound quality vs. power and volume. My old Polk floorstanders were capable of awesome volume and power. But I like the maggies better. They've got me listening to music I never listened to before because they make you seek out high quality source material. Most rock and metal sounds like overly compressed crap and the maggies really reveal this. I've been listening to Radio Paradise on internet radio. Some of the best music I ever heard.

This is an accurate and wonderful description of Magnepan speakers. And I agree.

 

[MajorMajorMajorMajor]

I saw an impedance graph for the maggie LRS that had the impedance dipping down to close to 2 ohms in the high frequencies. I'm driving mine with a Vidar amp and if I push the volume the amp overheats and shuts down. But it is capable adequate volume. The Vidar is rated at 100wpc into 8 ohms and 200wpc into 4 ohms.

Hi... just dropping into this discussion forever later.

I have the Vidar 2 in monoblock mode powering a pair of ML 60XTis.

It shuts off when you turn the freya+ to about 70%. Help?

 

[NTK]

Hi... just dropping into this discussion forever later.

I have the Vidar 2 in monoblock mode powering a pair of ML 60XTis.

It shuts off when you turn the freya+ to about 70%. Help?

Your question really does not belong to this thread. But anyhow, the impedance of your Martin Logan Motion 60XTi looks like it is too low for your Vidars running in bridge mode. The impedance looks like it is around or below 3 ohm from ~100 Hz to ~ 2kHz. Amplifiers usually don't like low impedance speakers when running in bridge mode. The impedance graph below is from:

SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - NRC Measurements: MartinLogan Motion 60XTi Loudspeakers

www.soundstagenetwork.com

[Edit] You are probably better off running just one Vidar in stereo mode to drive both left and right speakers.

 

[MajorMajorMajorMajor]

Your question really does not belong to this thread. But anyhow, the impedance of your Martin Logan Motion 60XTi looks like it is too low for your Vidars running in bridge mode. The impedance looks like it is around or below 3 ohm from ~100 Hz to ~ 2kHz. Amplifiers usually don't like low impedance speakers when running in bridge mode. The impedance graph below is from:

SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - NRC Measurements: MartinLogan Motion 60XTi Loudspeakers

www.soundstagenetwork.com

[Edit] You are probably better off running just one Vidar in stereo mode to drive both left and right speakers.

Thank you, I appreciate the help.