Back to it - Practical speaker upgrade

I think you should make a point of listening to Magnepan speakers before you make your decision. Planar speakers like Magnepans and electrostatics sound different. Some people can't stand them - but I won't live without them.

If it weren’t for the WAF, I would suggest you will find it impossible to obtain better sound than you can obtain with the Linkwitz Audio LX521 Open Baffle Speakers - very few speakers, if any, sound better. There was a pair with the crossover and amp available last month on Audiogon - may still be available. You can also get the kit on Madisound. I have the Linkwitz Orions, which sound about the same, but are more expensive.

Another great choice, which sounds just as good, are any of the Pure Audio Project open baffle speakers.

And... if WAF must be a factor... the Spatial Audio open baffle speakers, followed by the Magnepans.

These open baffle, dipole speakers will have sound that you can not match for less than $20,000+, if that. And will not be matched by any box speaker, without "semi-open" baffles.

This is not just my opinion, but the opinion of many who have tried both, and many very expensive alternatives.

The advantage of the Pure Audio Project, Spatial Audio, and Magnepans is that they do not require bi/tri-amping and external crossovers - they’re much less complicated to drive than the Linkwitz speakers. And the Maggies require quite a bit of high-end power. That’s not true of the others mentioned, which are more efficient and easier to drive, and they have a bit better dynamics and bass than the Maggies.

For the money, nothing can really rival these.

Based on the number of responses, I think I wasn't clear on the question. I thought there would be more interest in this. This isn't a gear question so much as an approach question. I'll restate it a different way:

The options I am looking at are:

1. Invest my budget into a nice speakers for the family room and leverage my existing setup.

2. Invest in a second system for another room where I have more flexibility with amp, placement, etc...

Option 1 leverages existing gear, but introduces constraints; for example, I need to have a reliable amp that will do double duty for multiple sources, including TV.

Option 2 offers increased flexibility -- I can get another amp and speakers -- but a second system means splitting the same money over two systems.

My question then is really which tradeoffs make the most sense? Obviously I know this is something I have to answer, but curious as to see if others have made these choices, and what their outcomes were.

What you are asking is actually a very personal question that only you can answer. If it were me, I would go for the second room. There is someone selling a pair of Magnepan tympany 1 speakers for $1200 on Audiogon right now. I'd buy them myself if I had any use for them. Its been a long time now, but one of the best systems I have ever heard was Tympany 1's powered by Mark Levinson electronics (ML-2s) I don't remember the turntable (this was pre-cd). I still remember it to this day. They do look like room divider screens.

There has been no real advancement in speaker design for 50 years. Don't think newer is better, but don't take that to mean all speaker designs are good. (I gave the Avantgarde horn speakers a tryout at a distributer demo--and hated them.) I use Sound Lab A-2s, purchased used in 1985. Still haven't found anything I like more. My second system (same room, I turn my chair around) uses the Altec 755a, made in 1957, and a 2 watt homebuilt single ended triode amp. Except for orchestral music and rock, I prefer the second system.

braudio7 - Let me get this straight. Either improve your existing system or add a second system? If so that's a question only you can answer but I at one time thought I would go with a small second system. The more I thought about it I decided to go for just one great system. The reason is, would I be disappointed with the second system compared to the first. Probably so I decided on one system.

That said, I'm in the speaker first camp when building a system. Because all speakers will have a 'house' sound. Find the one house sound you like the best. From there I think you'll find several amps that mate well with them. I started with a Denon integrated ($400) and mission/cyrus speakers ($800). Sounded great but when I got the itch to upgrade I got the Bryston B100sst ($5k). I was having some minor issues with the Denon. Well to my surprise I had to 'squint' to hear the improvements. But since the speakers were 20 yrs old a couple of years later I decided to start looking at new speakers mainly for more bass and clarity. After listening to quite a few I thought it would be best to bring my speakers with to demo against the ones I thought I liked. To my amazement I liked the mids of my original speakers more than most others. It wasn't until I heard the Sonus Faber Creamora auditors I said WOW. They did everything better and since they were outside my budget at the time I kept looking. Then I heard the Dynaudio C1's. Same price as the SF's and similar sound but the Dyn's were even better from top to bottom. So I bought them. Later I thought of trying tubes. So my local dealer brought over an Octave V70se for me to demo. In less than 5 min I was so impressed with the 'control' of the music I pulled the trigger. Also I didn't realize how dry sounding the Bryston was and thinking that if I were to want to change up the sound I could start swapping tubes. Never thought I would get rid of the Dyn's because they had the sound I really loved. Then one day I heard Raidho Diamond series. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It took me many months to try and get that sound out of my head. My system sounded just wrong after that. Yes I did get the Raidho's and replaced the Octave because it really fell apart at the highest listening levels.
YMMV
Good luck whichever you decide