Magnepan LRS compared to the .7 or the 1.7i ?

I own a pair of Magnepan 1.7i. I spoke to Wendell of Magnepan and demoed the LRS. My 1.7i are larger and give a larger soundstage. But the LRS are really excellent, as well, on an absolute basis and especially for the money. Personally, before I mounted my 1.7i speakers on MyeStands, I did use a subwoofer. But it was a pain. The setup of the sub to work just right with the Maggies is difficult. But then I mounted the 1.7i pair on MyeStands. The difference is not subtle. Bass is tighter and deeper. Overall definition and focus of the speakers across the range is better. I also got the Mike Powell silver jumper and cylinder (instead of fuse) upgrade. That resulted in further improvements in the highs and other aspects. Personally, I think that Magnepan should adopt the MyeStands and upgrades like Mike Powell’s or Cardas as either standard equipment or an option you can order. They make that much of a difference. Having done all of that, my subwoofers are gone. I am selling them. 

I think if you or anyone gets a pair of LRS, you should seriously consider ordering what ever stand Grant VanderMye from MyeStands constructs for them. Then get the fuse and jumper upgrade. After that determine if you need a subwoofer. I don’t think you will. But if you want one a dipole sub, sealed sub (no ports) would be best. REL or Rhythmik. But personally, I don’t need them now. YMMV. 

To answer the question: I am not familiar with the .7i. But in comparing with LRS with my 1.7i. It’s a matter of how much money can you spend and a matter of great and greater. I heard the LRS myself at the secret Maggie room at Axpona with Wendell inside and his wife guarding the door. Everything you hear from Steve Guttenberg IMO is dead on. I agree with his assessment. I think for $650 they are the biggest speaker bargain around. Period. Order them. You have nothing to lose. I personally would make two other calls or purchases after ordering them: per above, get what ever stand MyeStands has devised for the LRS and get the Mike Powell upgrade. If you have about $2000-$2250 and the room, get the 1.7i. I think you will be happy. One thing I would watch for the LRS is the use of the Schiit Vidar per the Guttenberg review. Now it may be different for the LRS than the 1.7i, but I had a pair of Vidars running as monoblocks and granted, I was playing Jeff Beck fusion music loud and one of the Vidars went into thermal protection. Maybe one or two Vidars is enough for the LRS. I don’t know. But Maggies like power. I since upgraded my 1.7i system from the pair of Vidars to a pair of Bryston 4B3s (which were great and no issues) and then because of an opportunity to a pair of Bryston 28B3s. 
So for the money the LRS is great. If you do please save some money for stands and maybe the upgraded jumper and fuse (about $79). 

 @noble100 The subwoofer issue you and I have discussed as I tried to state above, is now moot for me. I will clarify this again more directly to again make my point: Based on my own experience which has also been confirmed by other Maggie owners I know, if you are running Magnepans and have not ordered and mounted them on MyeStands, you are cheating yourself and you are not hearing the full potential of these great speakers. I was messing around with a Snell PS.10 sub and a Paradigm 10 inch sub prior  and ran into the feeling of disconnected sound. Subs are hard to synchronize and really match up with Maggies. Anyway, after I mounted my 1.7i pair on MyeStands, the bass got tighter. Everything got more detailed. Just overall a very noticeable difference. I took the subs off my system and I am now selling them. They just aren’t needed. There is plenty of good bass now. For the coup de gras, Get the Mike Powell Audio instant Maggie upgrade. I got the silver one. It replaces the plated steel jumper with a solid silver one. It replaces the stock fuse with a hollow silver tube. Just be careful with you speakers now that you have no fuse. Again another significant SQ improvement. This setup should be the baseline for all Maggies and how Maggies are compared amongst themselves and against other speakers. They just aren’t fully setup without the above improvements IMO.