This system shares space with the theater. The advantage of having the somewhat larger listening room is that the Magnepans can, for lack of a better word, breathe. I believe it’s atypical to see a newer Krell amp driving magneplanars, but having experimented with a few class AB amps, including my Krell integrated amp, I chose the Duo 300 for its rather impressive control over these speakers along with the astounding way it makes the ribbon tweeter perform. I’m an unrepentant tinkerer, so speaker and component placements tend to vary.
Nobsound springs under the speakers and the shelves upon which the components sit. I adjust the spring configuration to achieve 40-60% compression. The stock springs under the turntable were swapped out for lighter ones. Excellent results from placing them under the turntable and subwoofer. No discernible advantage to having them under the DAC/preamp or the phono preamp.
Thanks, all, for your comments. I'm a real lover of Magnepans, but I agree that you're very limited with placement; not only of the speakers, but of the listening position. Managing that rear wave of energy is critical. Everything from the distance to the front wall (to the millimeter) to the type of surface of that wall will have a noticeable effect. I've tried various configurations of acoustic panels on the front wall to absorb the reflection, but always end up going back to a hard surface with irregularities for diffusion. When it's right, it's so good it's spooky. I also agree that Mye stands would be a good idea. Maybe someday soon, but for now, I'm chasing bottlenecks in other parts of the system. The preamp has left the building, so to speak. In its place, I'm going with a DAC which directly feeds the Krell. Currently evaluating the PS Audio DirectStream and the Benchmark DAC3.
I have to agree with yugalg9. I purchased Magnepan 0.7's more than a year ago and after two months trying out different placements and room acoustic modifications they sound more like a live orchestra in a concert hall than a pair of Sonus Farber speakers costing over $50,000. Box speakers are the hard way to design a speaker and Sonus Farger spent decades on perfecting their midrange cones and other engineering feats which when compared to Magnepan are what Jack Northrop called inventing rubber gloves to write with a leaky fountain pen.
Both my house and my budget are not big enough for anything bigger than the 0.7's, which I drive with 833-A single ended triodes. (See my system.)
I have listened to maggies several times and they always sound great. they require a lot of care with placement, though. In fact, about a year ago I visited a shop in Israel and listened to a sonus-faber fotura; they sounded worse than a pair of maggies (1.7 if I am not mistaken). A loyal client of the shop agreed with me. This was quite a surprise; a pair of cheap maggies outperforming a $20,000 speaker! I have also listened to a pair of Martin-Logan Electrostatic 'speakers at a local hi-fi exhibition held in Israel a few months ago; they sounded very transparent and did a nice "disappearing" act. And, Yes, the same shop also demonstrated the Pro-Ject 2 Experience, albeit with an Ortofon MM Blue cartridge, not the MC described above (Sumiko BluePoint 2). As befits a high-end system, I would have opted for a higher-caliber MC cartridge, e.g. a Lyra or a HANA or a Van-den-hull or a Stradivarius or an Ortofon A95 or an Ortofon ANNA or an Ortofon SPU. But I am nitpicking; I am sure the Sumiko sounded just fine.
It appears you're still using the factory stands. I'd highly recommend the Mye speaker stands, which made a huge improvement with my 3.6Rs. The ability to adjust the stands will eliminate the need for the shims.
