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Puzzled about reasons why there seems to be no shortage of used planner speakers

All the over the top reviews of the Magnepan LRS has awakened the old puzzlement of how good are my DIY speakers and is it worth it to make a change?

I am very satisfied with my current system as far as my analog sources go.  I have a Denon direct drive turntable in a custom plinth, a Jelco tone arm  and a Transfiguration Temper Supreme cartridge. The phono pre is the octal version of the Hagerman Coronet with Lundahl step up transformers. I'm using a Toshiba HD DVD player for playing CD's. I'm using a Rotel RSP-1098 in analogue bypass for all sources. My amp is a VTL 50/50 tube amp.

My speakers are transmission line and utilizing parts from North Creek including hand wound coils and Harmony capacitors. Any one who has heard them has been impressed with them and with one being brought to tears of joy having never heard his favorite song played through a system such as mine.

That leaves me with a dilemma. If I go with the LRS, I will have to sell the VTL amp to get a used amp that can power the LRS. 

What is troubling me is seeing so many used planar speakers for sale on Ebay and Audiogon. Is that because they grow tired of them, or feel a need to try something new? Or are they upgrading to another planar speaker, or all of these reasons?
 
I'd like to hear from those that sold or are selling their planar speakers. 

I've only ever heard one planar speaker in my life and that was for about 5 minutes when I was taking my daughter through one of Seattle's high end stores to let her hear the differences between between differing levels of quality speakers as she was planning to get a her own system in the near future.  I've never heard a Maggie.

I don't want to get in the position of having sold my VTL to make this change and winding up with probably an amplifier that really doesn't come up to the same level quality and would most likely be a SS amp.

My goal here is to try get the best information I can from those that felt the need make similar decisions. I am retired now and living on a fixed income in a town in New Mexico (Las Cruses) that has no real Hi-end stores.

Any offers from anyone locally to let me hear their system would be most appreciated.  
rogue_angel
snapsc
666 posts
 
I suspect there is one more issue that applies to many of us... “our sense of what sounds good” changes over time. Planars sound great this year... high efficiency next year... and so on. 

The LRS will undoubtedly be lacking in some areas... and won’t satisfy some people long term... but it is so affordable that it may induce more people to have a second system???
jburidan
803 posts
 
They sound good at first but ultimately are unsatisfactory.
rrs711
3 posts
 
If you are interested in PM, then can find a set of BG Radia 520s, and listen them.  (Full disclosure: I was BG's patent attorney for many years, until they were bought by Christie Digital.)

The 520s were designed by Igor Levitsky, the designer behind the Oppo PM series as well as other PM systems.  The 520s use 50" PM tweeter/mid (similar to the Neo tweeter you see on Parts Express).  They create a very nicely sized soundstage and exact imaging, especially in height.  A sub is helpful but not strictly necessary in small room.  To my older ear which is -6b down at 11k, they sound nicely balanced. They need decent power (100w). Read the Stereophile review.

A lesser, smaller, on-wall alternative is the BG R17s.  Google that and you will find a dealer bgradiadesign (to whom I have no affiliation) selling NOS.


prof
3,450 posts
 
Why are you puzzled there is no shortage of used planars?

There is no shortage of used box speakers either. In fact, there are far more used box speakers (because more are sold).

By my quick calculation, just looking at audiogon, there are roughly 480 speakers for sale, with only 24 of those being planar speakers. 5% of the speakers for sale.

Does this constitute some surprising percentage of planars for sale?It doesn’t to me. Especially if you take in to account that this is a high end audio site and planars are virtually automatically "high end" speakers. (In other words, there is a selection bias going on - there is a much higher percentage of box speaker to planar speakers sold if you take in all the "non-high end" box speakers sold. But once you are talking high end audio, it’s almost a right of passage for many to have tried planars at least once).

Anyway, if you are looking for reasons some of us move on from planars, I moved on (from Quad ESL 63s) because although I loved the boxless quality and sense of transparency, I missed the sense of body, palpability and dynamics I get with box speakers. And these days, plenty of box speakers sound very "boxless" and transparent, so I’m getting enough of that plus the dynamic qualities I crave. I’ve seen many previous planar owners express the same sentiment.

Of course, there are others who had a planar speaker early, tried box speakers, found that box speakers didn’t give them what they liked from the planar, and went back to planar. And so it goes....





rogue_angel OP
5 posts
 
"Why are you puzzled there is no shortage of used planars?"

I was expecting ( rightly or wrongly ) that the people that loved the "boxless quality and sense of transparency" would make it difficult to give that up. Personally if I were that enamored with that sound presentation that would be the case for me. There are so many more box speaker manufacturers with many choices of models that it seems more likely that the desire to upgrade would be more pronounced. 

Since it appears I will not be able to audition a maggie after discussions with nearby dealers; the discussion is essentially mute,  as I will never ever buy a speaker without hearing it first. Same idea applies to cars; no test ride means no sale. 

Thanks  all of  the responses. It was very useful to me!

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