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.
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.
