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Long hiatus from audio, getting back into it, speaker/room help please

Hey all, thanks for offering this forum, I've been reading a lot, and as the subject says I'm coming back to audio from a long hiatus. Long story short, about 25 years ago I built a very nice home theater in my previous house in CA - it was a Martin Logan 5.1 system, Sunfire amps, Lexicon MC-1, Sunfire subs, etc. It was awesome at the time and I had a very good time with it. Then, after 20 years, I got a divorce - also at the same time as the divorce I lost my mom to cancer, and also at the same time I got my own cancer diagnosis. So I moved to Texas to treat my cancer, finalized the divorce (a 3 year process), and then if that wasn't enough, was involved in a very bad burn accident. I've now come out the other side, no cancer, burns recovered mostly, and I've been wanting to get back to my listening enjoyment.

I have a room (my office) that is going to be (mostly) dedicated to this listening for mostly me only. Its 17 feet by 30 feet in size, is solid wood surround (walnut), and has cathedral ceilings. Its rectangular and has a spiral staircase down to a garage below in the southeast corner of the room. On the south end it has a single window (5 feet wide, 3 feet tall), and on the west side are 3 smaller windows (each 2 feet wide by 6 feet tall). On the north end of the room is a window that is 3 feet wide and 5 feet tall. There is a door into the room on the east wall, sort of in the middle of the room but more towards the north corner.

I read about Magnepan LRS and that got me sparked to start this back up again. My ML's I had before sounded great for the type of music I like - accoustic and vocals, live music, light rock and roll. I love piano, strings, percussion but not so much horns. 

I'm thinking a good spot for the LRS' are at the south end of the room. There I can put them about 5 feet off the rear wall, and put my listening position about 15 feet back from them, centered between them. They'll have about 12 feet between them. I thought I'd drive them with a Schiit Vidar. I'm wide open in terms of preamp and source devices and would appreciate any recommendations there. What I really like about the LRS is that apparently they have great performance for not so much cash. Same with Vidar. So I'd like to keep that theme. I kind of like the analogy of the small block chevy to hot rods - a ton of parts available for a motor that virtually everyone uses, and its been used by everyone - i.e. everyone knows it. Similarly I think there's a wave of people using LRS+Vidar because its a relatively low cost entry into high performance. I think some of the Schiit preamps and DACs may find their way onto my list also perhaps. 

Anyhow, as far as budget goes, I'm lucky in that I'm not really limited there other than I'm not looking to dump $30k into this, rather I'd probably prefer to keep it under $5k to get the basics going. I *really* like the sound, transparency, stage, etc. of panels and since that's what I'm used to from the ML's I'd prefer to keep panels instead of cones.

I have a block diagram of the room but i'm not seeing a spot to upload it, perhaps I can link it in.

Thanks for any suggestions,
Jeff in Texas (DFW area)
n6gq
atlvalet
46 posts
 
I was in a similar situation in that I hadn’t poked around with audio since buying my Vandersteen 2Ci’s and an Adcom GFA-555 in 1991. I had to sell most of my stuff due to COVID. Luckily, I landed on my feet and started rebuilding my system about 5 months after that. A lot changed in 30 years lolol

I too thought about getting the LRS at first, but decided the bass response isn’t the best and that they might be pretty small. Another thing I wanted was something with better sensitivity than my Vandersteens, because I especially found dialogue hard to understand during movies with my old 2-channel set up.
You also have to give yourself a break, because you’ll constantly be learning about the ins and outs of all the new stuff. So what you want to buy now will not be what you want to buy in 3 months.

I decided on speakers that would be good with all kinds of content, and picked up a used pair of MA Silver 500’s. For my streamer and CD/DAC, I picked up the Audiolab 6000N and 8300CDQ. For amps, I always loved the old Aragon stuff, so I now have 3 different Aragon amps (I’m in the hoarding/testing mode) including a 4004MKii, an 8008BB and a set of Palladium 2’s. I got all of that used for around $7000...and that includes the 3 sets of amps, some of which I can sell if I choose.

Now that I’m 3 months down the road, I’d probably check out a set of the Triton 2+ (used) or even a Triton 1 (used), a set of Vandersteen 3A signatures (used) or even some higher end older speakers that have dropped in price. It’s a constant learning process and I haven’t even wrapped my head around a Roon server yet lol

Just give yourself permission to buy a system to get started, and know that you’ll want to try some more things out as you play around with things.

Good luck :)
jaytor's avatar
jaytor
742 posts
 
I'll add my vote to look at GR-Research speakers. Danny often knows of customers that are trading up and have already-built speakers available for sale. There are also a number of folks that will build them for you if you don't want to try to tackle them yourself. 

I'm currently using the NX-Oticas with OB subs is a fairly large (17'x29') room and they are fabulous. Danny's speakers offer tremendous value, and many of them will give you a presentation similar to Maggies, but are a lot easier to drive.

You can take a look at my system page to see the NX-Oticas. 

https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8726
n6gq OP
7 posts
 
@jaytor, beautiful room and gear! 

Yes, GR Research is on my list to visit - right now I'm on a tangent to build a headphone system so at some point I'll probably dive deeper into the room I mentioned here, we'll see. Thank you for your input - that's quite a nice place you have!
kennyc
1,195 posts
 
@n6gq
What is your bass requirements in a speaker?
I noticed you like ML and am looking into panel speakers like Magnepan, but panel speakers generally lack bass because the vibrating panel cannot move as much air as a piston type driver.  Adding a subwoofer is a precarious solution because of the mismatch speed of the fast panel coupled with the slower piston speed of the subwoofer- this speed mismatch can be a sonic deal breaker for some people.

If you don’t require loud and much bass perhaps a nearfield setup would meet your needs better than a full range speaker.
chuckjonez
34 posts
 
Hi there. I just wanted to encourage you to include in your search used Martin Logan electrostatics. Almost every model they’ve offered for years is a hybrid with a traditional woofer enclosure below the flat panel. They’ve offered many models at many price points, and finding a used pair under $1500 is not a fool’s errand at all. I personally have preferred the sound of electrostatics over planers through the years, for whatever that is (probably not much) worth. And there are also options that reviewers compare to planar and electrostatics because of their openness—their ability to not sound like the sound is coming out of a couple of shoe boxes. I’m thinking of Vandersteen model 2s or 3s; they are affordable and not too hard to find on used marketplaces. Good luck!
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