Magnepan Magneplanar Little Ribbon Speakers, the original. They are easy to move (20 lbs each), image beautifully, have wonderful transient response, and cover most of the spectrum present in jazz and folk/bluegrass, my main listening categories. They also do well with orchestral music. And they are easy to place, believe Magnepan about the distance off the back wall and spacing. And budget friendly at $1000/pair plus freight.
The LRS is very resolving harmonically and temporally. Cymbals are natural where well recorded. Drums have proper transients and snares are cleanly articulated. You can tell acoustic and electric bass apart. Bowed bass reproduces with the string slip and stick clear. Piano sound dances and sparkles in the upper registers. Voices are cleanly separated (Scarlet Town on Thile-Mehldau). The LRS will clearly differentiate DAC voicing and temporal behavior. And jitter. Before it presents as hiss, it will present as a loss of spaciousness.
The LRS has been revised since I purchased my pair. The LRS is specifically designed to be a demo of the larger products. It has the same voicing and transient response. It’s just smaller, 15 inches by 48 inches and is best suited for smaller rooms (fine in a 400 square foot great room). Magnepan offers a purchase credit toward the larger numbered models. The bigger panels can fill larger spaces. The most expensive versions have a true ribbon tweeter.
The LRS is a line source. The traditional thumb rules for placement still hold, half the space width apart on space centerline and 3 to 6 feet off the back wall.
The LRS is a dipole radiator (front and back). I still double-take when I step behind one and hear the playing program clearly. Something to remember placing pet beds. The placement off the back wall phases the reflected back wave with the front affecting the voicing. Once the correct position is found, they can be moved out for playback or tucked back for the news.
That little bit of lean backward has two effects. It makes them more stable, ie harder for the dog to knock over, and it raises the panel radiation pattern up to ear level at the normal listening distance. Don’t stand them up straight as beam axis will be at gut level vice ear level.
I have used them for movie playback. They are spooky in their reproduction of Foley effects. They will probably not satisfy boy-movie fans.
The LRS needs a beefy amplifier capable of high current as their back EMF behavior is different than other speakers. Impedance is relatively constant at 4 ohms. A Schiit Vidar is happy to about 85 dbA. Above 90, things get strange. A bit louder and Vidar will take a nap. My Vidar is an original running in stereo mode. Mono-blocks are optional but not needed in smaller rooms with sane level expectations.
