The Magnepan LRS+ — Does It Have ANY Competition?

Not to spoil the fun, but if you watch my video review of the Magnepan LRS+ below, you will, I hope, get the sense that I think this is a very special speaker. I want to say a little more about this, because almost all of high-performance audio (and really almost all reviewing of complex products) involves more than just an assessment of “general goodness”. What I mean is that there are various elements of goodness, and when a reviewer praises a product, almost invariably, he or she is praising some particulars, not everything about the product. This can lead to some confusion, especially if you are actually thinking about purchasing the product under review. You want, ideally, all-around goodness, and the darn reviewer is explaining pros and cons, and you don’t really want cons, but then almost no product is without cons and you are left comparing pros and cons and it can be hard to know how to add things up. Yikes!

Neither I nor any other reviewer can tell you how to add things up. But, I’d like to give you useful information for doing your sums. This is especially important with the LRS+ because, while we think we want “well-rounded” equipment, the LRS+ is more “well-lopsided”. Here are some points about the Magnepan LRS+ that I hope are helpful for this assessing how it might work for you:

• The LRS+ is so good at what it does well that I think anyone considering speakers for a small- to medium-sized room should consider it. This is not a price-dependent comment, although the LRS+ is only $995/pair

• The LRS+ is extraordinary at creating a soundstage that crosses the threshold of believability (again, in a small-medium sized room). This is both very important IMHO and very rare

• The LRS+ also manages to have low distortion, especially in the midrange and upper bass, that make you realize how imperfectly transparent many speakers are

• The flaws of the LRS+ are either not that musically troubling (the mild roughness of the lower treble) or are likely to be correctable with some money and effort (bass balance and extension probably correctable with subs, particularly the upcoming Magnepan dipole woofers), but…

• The lack of low bass and the rolloff in the mid-bass will be, if you don’t plan to address this with subs, a bigger issue for power music (hard rock, big orchestral, hip-hop) aficionados. A very big issue, I suspect

• The other flaw, perhaps, of the LRS+ is that it does its thing best with rather high power amplification, and thus it is not really as inexpensive as it appears (also see bass comment above)

I hope it is obvious, but getting the best from the LRS+ takes some work. And for many people, some money. And there are a host of parameters where they are good, but probably not state-of-the-art (e.g. dynamics). But they are just so musically involving that I would consider them a “must hear” product.

Jonathan Valin has his full review of the Magnepan LRS+ in Issue 331 of The Absolute Sound. You can read that right now that by subscribing to the digital edition of the magazine and downloading Issue 331:

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