Best Amps for Magneplanar 1.7i Speakers

note to newbs to this forum

search bar above is very useful, if one considers this forum has been here for 20+ years and if the question in mind might have been asked before

fyi magnepan, at the start, jim winey used big audio research tube amps at shows showing off the speakers

over time, they switch to bryston solid state, then about a decade ago, switched again to pass labs solid state being used pretty much exclusively

hegel and other serious solid state amps with a natural smooth refined sound such as upper krells, upper musical fidelity, gryphon, classe, coda, boulder all do very well and show off everything the speakers can do - generally speaking, 100 wpc in 8 doubling into 4 (the maggies’ impedance) is a good rule of thumb

on the value end of the spectrum, odyssey and better van alstines do quite well

tube hybrids can do well too, so long as the solid state output stage is stout

@kevin1956

Still, with that volume knob well past the halfway mark I do wonder whether the Maggies need a little more juice.

don’t mistake volume knob position with amplifier power available to drive speakers

could well be you have a low output voltage source (or high input impedance at the amp input), leading you to need to open up the volume control on your rogue unit

just like a corvette may have a less sensitive gas pedal, need to step on it more to go... but it doesn’t mean it is less powerful than a honda civic with a touchy gas pedal

i have felt that while sanders and bryston amps surely have the ’balls’ to drive maggies well, to my ears they lack the last desired dose of refinement, tactility and fullness/bloom that i feel is very beneifical for maggies (in this category i include amps from spectral, levinson/proceed, non class a krells and so on) -- we all hear differently, have different tastes, but this has been my own experience

that said, current gen maggies big and small are thankfully voiced sonewhat warmer/fuller than earlier ones from years ago, but are they remain quite demanding in terms of needing to be fed very pure treble and mids

i still prefer solid state amps from pass labs (ideally high class-a biased ones), hegel, ayre, accuphase and that ilk, that bring an exceptionally high level of treble purity and refinement to the sound (alternatively, tube/ss hybrids can often do very very well with maggies)