Bookshelves? Towers? Panels? Help me set up new living room :)

[arpod]

So I'm moving into a new house soon and I've been trying to figure out the best way to set up the living room which will be the main listening space. The challenge is that the wall where I would normally set up a media console + stereo is better served by a couch so the speakers have to go into the middle of the room (not a bad thing per se). So they have to look decent from behind and not be too massive. The room feels kind of narrow so I feel like I need to find a balance between a full sound and not overwhelming the space. So far the two leading candidates are:

1) Tekton Lore Reference or Mini Lore - They should be efficient enough to use my tube amps and the back of the boxes are nice and clean. Sonically I'm leaning towards the reference but size wise the mini makes more sense. 8" drivers seem like a good size for this size space. Kind of leaning in this direction as I really love what the Eicos do for the music. It's not dramatic and certainly not very colored but it has an organic and weighty feel that has grown on me.

2) Magnepan LRS - I'm really curious to experience the room filling sound these are known for. They will have plenty of space behind them and their low end probably won't overwhelm the space. I like that they are slim and low profile and would probably look nice. I'm not sure if I'll love them for the music I like especially since I'm used to such a dynamic speaker and tube amplification. I have a powerful amp that should power them no problem though.

I'm including a couple of mock up images to give you an idea of the dimensions of the space. It's a pretty rudimentary sketch but should help show dimensions. I can obviously move the chairs around for critical listening.

Currently listening to Klipsch Quartets powered by Eico tube amps and I love the sound. I listen to a pretty eclectic selection of music ranging from 60s - 80s rock/funk/jazz/folk/acoustic/experimental to classical and some modern electronic (NOT dubstep!) I don't need crazy bass and find that the Quartets (rated down to 38h) go low enough. I don't listen super loud but I do like to turn it up to get that immersive feeling. If I went with stand speakers or planars I'd probably want a sub but ideally I'd like to get away with not having to deal with setting up a sub.

Trying to keep the speakers under $1k

Sorry for the long post but I thought I could get some good feedback here. THANK YOU

 

[JoeESP9]

IMO/E the LRS's are bass shy and really need a decent subwoofer. It's hard to tell how your Eico tubes will sound through the LRS's. However, IME Maggies work well with tube amplification. Also, there are very few (almost none) receivers that couple well with any Magnepan.

As for how Maggies sound, my experience has been that you either immediately like them or don't. There are very few in-betweens opinion wise.

Your projected speaker positions look to be good places for Maggies or any planar speaker.

 

[arpod]

IMO/E the LRS's are bass shy and really need a decent subwoofer. It's hard to tell how your Eico tubes will sound through the LRS's. However, IME Maggies work well with tube amplification. Also, there are very few (almost none) receivers that couple well with any Magnepan.

As for how Maggies sound, my experience has been that you either immediately like them or don't. There are very few in-betweens opinion wise.

Your projected speaker positions look to be good places for Maggies or any planar speaker.

I wouldn't use the eicos for the LRS, I would use a Schiit Vidar that I haven't been using since I got the Eico/Klipsch combo.

 

[arpod]

IMO/E the LRS's are bass shy and really need a decent subwoofer. It's hard to tell how your Eico tubes will sound through the LRS's. However, IME Maggies work well with tube amplification. Also, there are very few (almost none) receivers that couple well with any Magnepan.

As for how Maggies sound, my experience has been that you either immediately like them or don't. There are very few in-betweens opinion wise.

Your projected speaker positions look to be good places for Maggies or any planar speaker.

I think I'll have to find a place to demo the Maggies, you are probably right about it being a love or hate thing. The Tektons I know I could live with as they are the more familiar speaker.

 

[Old Guy8]

I drive 1.7i with Rogue Sphinx or Cronus Magnum amps. Magnepan claims 1.7i and LRS are both 4 ohm, 86db spl sensitivity. Stereophile magazine testing claimed they were nearly 6dbs less sensitive than that. If true that is significant, IMO. Whether your amp of choice runs out of gas, might depend on how loud you like your music. A second Vidar would allow setup as monoblock use?
I play mine in a bright 400 sf room up to 70dbs without any power issues, IME.
I don't know if Tekton senitivity ratings are relatively accurate either. No experience with them.

 

[arpod]

I drive 1.7i with Rogue Sphinx or Cronus Magnum amps. Magnepan claims 1.7i and LRS are both 4 ohm, 86db spl sensitivity. Stereophile magazine testing claimed they were nearly 6dbs less sensitive than that. If true that is significant, IMO. Whether your amp of choice runs out of gas, might depend on how loud you like your music. A second Vidar would allow setup as monoblock use?
I play mine in a bright 400 sf room up to 70dbs without any power issues, IME.
I don't know if Tekton senitivity ratings are relatively accurate either. No experience with them.

Yeah I don't know what the real numbers are either but I think practically it's pretty clear that you can use lower wattage amps with Tektons (lots of users using tube amps) and you need high current for Magnepan. I'm not too worried about finding an amp for the LRS - Vidar is supposed to work well and if not I can get a second or find something on the used market that will supply enough power. At the moment I'm more concerned about finding the right speaker for me. I'll figure out amplification after.

 

[Old Guy8]

My 1.7i give bass on about level of 10" large bookshelf speakers I have. With Magnepans and bass, area of panel does really matter.
When you get a demo, the setup is much more critical than with box speakers. Distance from front and side walls, toe in. I've read this also from many other Maggie owners on AK. Hopefully a dealer or other demo site has room and experience with them. To make them come alive.
Good hunting.

 

[arpod]

My 1.7i give bass on about level of 10" large bookshelf speakers I have. With Magnepans and bass, area of panel does really matter.
When you get a demo, the setup is much more critical than with box speakers. Distance from front and side walls, toe in. I've read this also from many other Maggie owners on AK. Hopefully a dealer or other demo site has room and experience with them. To make them come alive.
Good hunting.

Yeah I'm sure not matter what they're going to sound very different in your space than in a demo room but hopefully it can give me taste. I would want to listen to a familiar box speaker first as a reference.

 

[E-Stat]

Another vote for the highly regarded budget Magnepans. Dipoles really thrive when given the kind of space behind them you would provide.

 

[Akustic]

I'd use the Maggies, but l seriously enjoy their midrange accuracy .. power is necessary though ..
Ideal room for Magnepans .. esp. the angled wall to breakup the potential back wave cancellation ..
Whatever you choose, you will likely want to figure a way to integrate a subwoofer into the table between the speakers, unless you can find some big floorstanders that are well balanced and happy with mid-room placement .. (not too likely) ..

 

[arpod]

Wow I'm kind of pleasantly surprised to see all the encouragement towards the Magnepans! It was my original plan but I'd started considering skinny efficient towers so I could use tube amps and no sub. Hopefully I can find a place where the sub sounds good and isn't too intrusive.

I'll definitely have to take a trip to the local Magnepan dealer next week to have a listen.

 

[RunOutGroove]

I don't have personal experience with any of this stuff (though I'd really like to hear some Magnepan speakers!) though a friend of mine who has a really nice system has a bigger set of Tektons. He only settled on them after buying several other very expensive floor standing speakers... so I figure that there must be something to those things.

 

[JoeESP9]

Wow I'm kind of pleasantly surprised to see all the encouragement towards the Magnepans! It was my original plan but I'd started considering skinny efficient towers so I could use tube amps and no sub. Hopefully I can find a place where the sub sounds good and isn't too intrusive.

I'll definitely have to take a trip to the local Magnepan dealer next week to have a listen.

There is a relatively easy way to find a subwoofers best location.

Place the sub where your chair is. If it will fit place the sub in the chair.
Play some full range music with plenty of bass.
Crawl around the floor and listen to the bass.
Where you hear it the loudest/best is usually the best place to place a sub.

If you use an electronic crossover to remove low bass from Magnapan's they will play louder and require substantially less power to do it.

 

[ejman]

I use a Jolida 502 P (with KT 150 power tubes) with my 1.7 Magneplanars. Room is 14X24 with 9 ft ceiling. The power output for the Jolida is 60 W/ch (maybe the KT 150's offer a bit more headroom don't really know but I do know they sound better than the Tungsol 6550 it came with). The interesting thing is that to my ears that combo sounds better than the other SS amps I have available with far more power - Conrad Johnson SS and Emotiva monoblocks. I do use a sub but to me it was an eye opening surprise that a low power tube amp would sound so good vs high power SS amps. I guess the take away from this is don't discount any pairing until you try it. Other folks don't share my ears and I don't share theirs.

 

[twiiii]

I would rotate the system 180 degrees to get better room gain. And soften the room with drapes and carpet. If the windows are not double or triple pane with sealed glass that would the thing I would do first. Single pane windows can flex and destroy any possibility of getting accurate bass and with out drapes will make mids and highs very erratic.

 

[JoeESP9]

deleted

 

[JoeESP9]

I use a Jolida 502 P (with KT 150 power tubes) with my 1.7 Magneplanars. Room is 14X24 with 9 ft ceiling. The power output for the Jolida is 60 W/ch (maybe the KT 150's offer a bit more headroom don't really know but I do know they sound better than the Tungsol 6550 it came with). The interesting thing is that to my ears that combo sounds better than the other SS amps I have available with far more power - Conrad Johnson SS and Emotiva monoblocks. I do use a sub but to me it was an eye opening surprise that a low power tube amp would sound so good vs high power SS amps. I guess the take away from this is don't discount any pairing until you try it. Other folks don't share my ears and I don't share theirs.

IME removing the responsibility of producing bass from Maggies allows them to play louder and IMO cleaner. They also use less power for the same SPL. That makes them even more tube amp friendly.

 

[arpod]

There is a relatively easy way to find a subwoofers best location.

Place the sub where your chair is. If it will fit place the sub in the chair.
Play some full range music with plenty of bass.
Crawl around the floor and listen to the bass.
Where you hear it the loudest/best is usually the best place to place a sub.

If you use an electronic crossover to remove low bass from Magnapan's they will play louder and require substantially less power to do it.

Yeah that's what I plan on doing if I use a sub. I'm just praying that the best place to put the sub isn't a total eyesore!

 

[arpod]

IME removing the responsibility of producing bass from Maggies allows them to play louder and IMO cleaner. They also use less power for the same SPL. That makes them even more tube amp friendly.

What's a cost effective way of removing the bass frequencies from the speakers and not the sub? I've never messed around with digital crossovers before..

 

[arpod]

I would rotate the system 180 degrees to get better room gain. And soften the room with drapes and carpet. If the windows are not double or triple pane with sealed glass that would the thing I would do first. Single pane windows can flex and destroy any possibility of getting accurate bass and with out drapes will make mids and highs very erratic.

I will take that into consideration but this is a living space first and a listening space second so I do have to take good design and flow into consideration. Sadly I don't have the luxury of creating a dedicated listening space.