Magnepan LRS Loudspeaker

For decades now, Magnepan has been trying to find stylish ways to fit its large planar-magnetic loudspeakers into smaller listening rooms without overly compromising the quick, neutral, highly coherent, boxless presentation for which Maggie dipoles are justly famous. Generally speaking, the result has been a downsizing of Magnepan’s big panels (and of the thin-but-sturdy wooden frames in which they are ensconced). It hasn’t seemed to occur to anyone that making cloth-covered rectangles smaller does not make them any more attractive. No matter how many lovely little girls with bouquets of roses in their hands are photographed standing or sitting contentedly beside them, smaller Magnepans still look like office room dividers (which were, in fact, the inspirations for the original Maggie Tympanis)—just room dividers for smaller offices. 

Happily, most dyed-in-the-wool audiophiles could care less about how their speakers look—or about the other little things that come with congenial surroundings, like friends and spouses. They’re on a single-minded quest for the absolute sound. So sitting alone hour after hour, smack dab between a pair of skinny, sack-cloth-covered oblongs, in a room littered with empty LP sleeves, CD jewel cases that crunch like frost underfoot, and man-trap snares of cables and power cords, is just the price of bliss.

If you are one of these poor benighted souls—and what else could you be if you’re reading this magazine (or writing for it)?—then Magnepan’s latest stab at becoming more condo-friendly and au courant is certainly worth a listen. Indeed, within strict limits, the new LRS will wow you with its slice of sonic realism, which in the midband comes close to equaling that of any speaker, no matter the price. 

What Is An LRS?
The initialism “LRS” stands for “Little Ribbon Speaker.” And it is the “ribbon” part—not its demure size (and certainly not its looks)—that makes the latest little Maggie different and special. A nondescript floorstanding panel 48 inches high, 14½ inches wide, and a mere 1¼ inches thick, the LRS appears to be a virtual dead ringer for the speaker it improves upon and replaces, the venerable MMG. But looks can be deceiving. Under its cloth dust cover the LRS has a different and more advanced complement of drivers than its elder brother. Where the MMG used a “quasi-ribbon” tweeter and a planar-magnetic mid/woofer, the LRS’s drivers are all ribbon (or quasi-). This makes for important and easily audible sonic differences. 

Magnepan’s quasi-ribbon is an extremely lightweight transducer—essentially a series of long, 0.001″-thick strips of aluminum foil mounted on a 0.0005″-thick substrate of tightly stretched Mylar, with the foil strips acting like voice coils that transmit the signal to the large single-piece film diaphragm. Compared to the heavier, more widely spaced signal-bearing wires and thicker Mylar diaphragms of the original MMG’s planar-magnetic mid/bass panel, the LRS’s quasi-ribbon mid/bass offers more uniform distribution of the signal and substantially lower moving mass. The result is markedly faster transient response, higher resolution of inner detail, greater coherence with the quasi-ribbon tweeter, and more neutral voicing overall. Moreover, where the $599 MMG was designed (twenty-four years ago) to be mated with the low-current “mid-fi” amplification of its day (typically integrated amps or what used to be called “receivers”), the LRS’s technical advant- ages allowed it to be designed for use with true high-end, high-current electronics. According to Magnepan’s guru Wendell Diller, the latest mini-Maggie aims to give listeners “a pretty good idea of what to expect from [Maggie’s flagship] 20.7s or 30.7s.”

Like the MMG, the LRS is a two-way loudspeaker with a first-order crossover between tweeter and mid/bass. As is the case with all Maggies, it can be set up with its tweeter on the outside for wider dispersion and a consequently larger soundstage or on the inside for tighter imaging. (To determine which side of each speaker is facing out or in, you locate the tweeter panel—a series of twelve, shiny, closely spaced vertical strips—by shining a flashlight through the LRS’s dust cover.) Getting the blend of the mid/woofer and tweeter just the way you want it in your room will require considerable experimentation with placement (Maggie recommends that the LRS be angled so that its mid/bass driver is very slightly closer to you than the tweeter), though no matter how much they are “toed-in” (or “-out”) the panels should sit a fair distance from the back and sidewalls (about three feet at a minimum). 

Magnepan rates the sensitivity of the LRS at 86dB/500Hz/1m/2.83V, but independent measurements have put its sensitivity at closer to 80dB—which is down in Apogee/MBL territory. Though, like all Maggies (and unlike Apogees), the LRS is a benign 4-ohm load, it will still require a stiff shot of power to get it up on its feet and dancing. Even then it won’t extend all that deeply into the bass or do midbass slam the way cones do. (Maggie specs the LRS’s frequency response as ±3dB from 50Hz–20kHz, but like the sensitivity-rating that’s hopeful.) 

On the indubitably plus side, the LRSes cost a mere $650 per pair and, shortcomings notwithstanding, rather redefine what you can get in the way of midband sonic realism for that kind of money. (I think that qualifies as an indubitable plus.)

How Does It Sound?
When I first began listening to the Little Ribbon Speaker (in the same room and with the same ridiculously expensive amplification, source components, and cabling I use with the unrivaled MBL 101 X-tremes) I was a bit taken aback. The fact was that, in some ways, the LRSes sounded more like the fabulous X-tremes than I would’ve thought possible, considering the roughly four-hundred-times difference in their price tags.

There were two reasons for this—one actual and the other fallacious. The actual reason has to do with some of the very same things I discussed in my review of the X-tremes in Issue 301. Since they are boxless dipoles with figure-eight radiation patterns, the LRSes have many of the virtues of boxless, constant-directionality monopoles such as the MBL Xes. Like omnis, virtually free-standing dipoles light up the entire listening space with sound coming from a multitude of heights and angles, enhancing soundstaging, reducing the effects of room nodes, and (thanks to their boxless, flat-panel construction) eliminating enclosure and cone-driver colorations. 

Of course, the rear wave of a dipole is out of phase with its front wave, which causes cancellations in the bass range that can be heard as a characteristic mid-to-upper bass leanness—a thinning down of timbre, weight, and power. Oh, pitches stay clearly defined (maybe even more clearly defined in the low end than they do with cone speakers, unencumbered, as the LRS’s reproduction of pitch is, by fully realistic color, body, and energy); image size remains large and lifelike (always a plus with Maggies), though in the lowest bass image size contracts a bit with descending frequency; and transient details are also very clear (for the same reasons that pitch-definition is clear). Like drawings in coloring books before they are filled in with crayon or paint, the outlines of bass notes are quite distinct, but their color, contrast, and texture are audibly reduced. 

This said, when I first listened to the LRS I heard none of this oh-so-familiar thinness in the bass. (I’ve lived with more Maggies than I have with any other brand of speakers, so I’m used to their foibles.) Indeed, the LRS’s bottom end sounded incredibly full and deep-reaching. It only took me a second or two to figure out why. (And this is the fallacious part.)

Before I hooked up the LRSes to my reference electronics, I (of course) unhitched the two gigantic Radialstrahler towers from the MBL 9008 A monoblocks. However, I inadvertently left the X-treme’s self-powered bass towers hooked up to the MBL 6010 D preamp, which I was using to source the 9008 A’s (and the LRSes). So what I was hearing, at the very start, was a hybrid system—MBL bass from about 105Hz down to the center of the earth, coupled with Maggie midrange and treble. 

In retrospect, the combination was good enough to make me think that the LRSes ought to be coupled to subwoofers (just not to $263,000 ones), as their sound with the subs off—though far more familiar from past experience—was a good deal less pleasing and lifelike overall. 

All by themselves, the LRS are, indeed, quite lean in the lower mids, power range, and bottom octaves. As I just noted, this doesn’t affect their superb resolution of pitches (at least down to about 60Hz, which encompasses the 82.4Hz E2 that is one of the lower notes a four-string electric bass guitar typically plays in standard tuning), or of instrumental and performance details such as the sweet, wispy, carnivalesque sounds the great Garth Hudson coaxes from his Lowery Festival organ on “The Shape I’m In” from Stage Fright. What’s missing, of course, is what those sub stacks supplied—lifelike color, dimensionality, and clout. 

To hear what makes the LRSes special, you have to move up a few octaves into the heart of the midrange. It is there, where most vocalists and instrumentalists play most of the time, that the LRSes (all by themselves) are quite special. It doesn’t matter which vocalist—Sarah Jarosz on “Coming Undone” from Undercurrent; Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys on “Shine A Little Light” from Let’s Rock; Richard Manuel (with Levon Helm and Rick Danko—never more clearly themselves—singing backup) on “The Shape I’m In” from Stage Fright—or which instrument—Daniil Trifonov’s Hamburg Steinway (in the mid to upper octaves) on his superb performance of the Rach Three (with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Nézet-Séguin); Joe Pass’ guitar, most of the Duke’s piano, even the transient plucks of Ray Brown’s standup bass on Duke’s Big Four—all of these things simply sound “real.”

As is the case with the MBLs, to a large extent this is the result of the reduction or outright elimination of room modes, box colorations, and cone resonances. Things just sound cleaner through Maggies, as if someone has taken a Swiffer to the little dustball-distortions that cling to the images of box speakers, leaving them (and the spaces around them) more purely and vividly present. As I’ve said repeatedly, conjuring up realistic wholes via a stereo system, rather than collections of more or less well-recorded parts, depends on the neutrality of your speaker and electronics—the absence of spurious emphases (or de-emphases) in timbre, intensity, pitch, and duration. In the midrange, the LRS is a colorless window on the music. Elsewhere…not so much.

Which brings us to the top octaves. The LRSes aren’t world-beaters in the upper-mids and treble, where a little roughness can creep in on massed strings and piano, and much air and sparkle (so marvelously reproduced by Magnepan’s “true” ribbon) gets rolled off and away by the bandwidth-limited quasi-ribbon tweet. 

The LRS certainly isn’t offensive on top. As with its bottom octaves, it’s just not as good (which is to say, as neutral) there as it is in the midband. (When the LRS was mated with the MBL sub stacks, these treble issues were counterbalanced by the additional bass, so they didn’t stand out as plainly as they do when the LRS is used solo.)

Conclusion
At $650 the LRS is an easy top recommendation. It will need considerable power and careful placement to perform at its best—and frankly it will also need a decent subwoofer if you want full-spectrum fidelity. But if you’re listening in a smallish room and are a fan of folk-rock or acoustic music, it will outdo anything else at or near its price. No matter how much you spend on your stereo, getting it to sound like the real thing isn’t a given, folks. In the midrange, the LRS sounds like the real thing.

Also see the review for the Magnepan LRS+.

Specs & Pricing

Type: Two-way, dipole loudspeaker with quasi-ribbon drivers
Frequency response: 50Hz–20kHz ±3dB
Sensitivity: 86dB/500Hz/2.83V
Impedance: 4 ohms
Dimensions: 14½” x 48″ x 1¼”
Weight: 46 lbs. (shipping)
Price: $650

MAGNEPAN INC.
1645 Ninth Street
White Bear Lake, MN 55110 
(800) 474-1646
magnepan.com

JV’s Reference System
Loudspeakers: MBL 101 X-treme, Magico M3, Voxativ 9.87, Avantgarde Zero 1, MartinLogan CLX, Magnepan 1.7 and 30.7
Subwoofers: JL Audio Gotham (pair), Magico QSub 15 (pair)
Linestage preamps: MBL 6010 D, Soulution 725, Constellation Audio Altair II, Siltech SAGA System C1, Air Tight ATE-2001 Reference
Phonostage preamps: Soulution 755, Clearaudio Absolute Phono, Walker Proscenium V, Constellation Audio Perseus
Power amplifiers: MBL 9008 A, Soulution 711, Constellation Audio Hercules II Stereo, Air Tight 3211, Air Tight ATM-2001, Zanden Audio Systems Model 9600, Siltech SAGA System V1/P1, Odyssey Audio Stratos, Voxativ Integrated 805 
Analog source: Clearaudio Master Innovation, Acoustic Signature Invictus Jr./T-9000, Walker Audio Proscenium Black Diamond Mk V, TW Acustic Black Knight/TW Raven 10.5, AMG Viella 12
Tape deck: United Home Audio Ultimate 5 OPS Phono cartridges: Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement, Air Tight Opus 1, Ortofon MC Anna, Ortofon MC A90
Digital source: MSB Reference DAC, Berkeley Alpha DAC 2, 
Cable and interconnect: Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream, Synergistic Research Galileo UEF, Ansuz Acoustics Diamond
Power Cords: Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream, Synergistic Research Galileo UEF, Ansuz Acoustics Diamond
Power Conditioner: AudioQuest Niagara 5000 (two), Synergistic Research Galileo UEF, Technical Brain
Support Systems: Critical Mass Systems MAXXUM and QXK equipment racks and amp stands
Room Treatments: Stein Music H2 Harmonizer system, Synergistic Research UEF Acoustic Panels/Atmosphere XL4/UEF Acoustic Dot system, Synergistic Research ART system, Shakti Hallographs (6), Zanden Acoustic panels, A/V Room Services Metu acoustic panels and traps, ASC Tube Traps
Accessories: Symposium Isis and Ultra equipment platforms, Symposium Rollerblocks and Fat Padz, Walker Prologue Reference equipment and amp stands, Walker Valid Points and Resonance Control discs, Clearaudio Double Matrix Professional Sonic record cleaner, Synergistic Research RED Quantum fuses, HiFi-Tuning silver/gold fuses