Audio Refinement with Magnepan MMG

I am a former Audio Refinement owner. I did not use it with Magnepans. It does seem to sound more powerful than its 50 watt rating and it has deep and tight bass. It is well made and good looking. Why am I a former owner? Well, I bought it based on the reviews, which claim it sounds "tubelike". I sold it and went back to tubes. By shopping carefully, I picked up a hybrid (ss/tube) amp and hybrid preamp for $1,325, which is slightly more than a new ARC. The sound quality of this combo clearly beats the ARC in every parameter except deep bass. Only problem for you is that Magnapans tend to do better with high current amps. Not all tube amps will meet this criteria.

I'm not quite sure from your description whether the Audio Refinement amp is SS or tube, since I am not familiar with it. However, I do own MMGs and drive them with a pair of Quicksilver kt88 tube amps rated at 60 watts per channel. They drive the MMGs to higher levels than I really need. But I do cheat a bit using a subwoofer with a high-pass filter. I previously used these amps to drive a pair of Acoustat Spectra 1100s to satisfying levels, and they are a very difficult load to drive.

Jim Robinson

Coincidently, I sold Quicksilver 90w Monos to downsize to the Audio Refinement, which is a SS amp. I found the sound of the Audio Refinement to be inferior to the Quicksilvers, but I prefer a warm, lush, airy sound. However, the Audio Refinement did have tighter bass response. The Quicksilvers can supposedly drive low impedence loads, but I have no first hand experience in this regard.