speakers for small room

I was thinking of a KEF Reference 1 Meta for A 12 X 11 X 9 (+ 4-foot closet where I put a desk and monitors). I was also thinking of Magico A1, Vivid S12, Yamaha NS2000, and some other monitors also close to $10k.

My room is treated with $700 of GIK acoustic panels, this is a must. 

I also have a KEF KC62 subwoofer. It was paired with the KEF LS50 Meta. This was a beautiful pairing, but I wanted to see if going up in price would make it even better.

Before I was able to buy a more expensive monitor, I wanted to try the new Magnepan LRS+ ($995) that people are raving about. It is a power hog, and my brute of an amp, the 100-watt Class A CODA #16, worked great with it.

The sound is way bigger than the LS50 Meta. Tons of depth and bass was shocking even without the KC62. I use the KC62, but I had to dial it down a lot compared with pairing it with the LS50 Meta.

I do not listen to much classical music, but I would imagine the wall of sound effect of the LRS+ would work great with that genre. 

I spent a lot of time and money making my office system sound good, Interestingly, I spent less to make it sound great.

I use my CODA #16 amp in my Livingroom with my Yamaha NS5000 speaker. So, I needed another amp for the LRS+. I tried a few others but was not mesmerized as with the CODA #16.

I eventually learned that the Sanders Sound Systems Magtech is what I should try with Magnepans. Roger Sanders sent me a used Magtech ($4k) on a 30-day trial. He normally does not give home trials on used gear, but he told me that I would love the pairing. After, 2 days of listening, I emailed Roger back and told him the amp is staying. What a combo.

An update on how to use RAAL phones. I sold my amazing RAAL VM-1a tube headphone amp because I needed money for an amp for the Magnepan LRS+.

I had the new RAAL TI-1b 2-channel amp interface box ($800). I use that with the following:

• Schitt Yggi+ Less is More DAC
• Schitt Aegir amp ($800)
• Schitt Mjolnir Class A preamp ($1100)

The above setup gets me to about 90-95% of the VM-1a tube amp ($7k). So one can get almost the best sound out the RAALs for a rather low price. I got this Schitt gear not because of the price, it was because of the sound.

BTW - The Mjolnir (sp?) is a headphone amp / preamp but I use it as a preamp only. It is not powerful enough for the RAAL CA-1a as a headphone amp. I also cannot use SR1a with them due to the need to do baffle compensation. I use the above Schitt setup as a 2-channel system.