Bryston Amp for Magnepan 3.5R

Bryston and Maggies are a match made in heaven (which is why the factory demos Maggies w/ Bryston amps) But Maggies are also very power-hungry so the 3B probably won't cut it. 4B at a very minumum, 7B should be quite adequate.

On the other hand, if you can afford a 14B, then you might want to consider a little bit more refined amp (Krell, Rowland, Mark Levinson, etc.) or bi-amping with a 4B on the bottom and maybe a toobie for that ribbon.

I would jump into the 7b, Krell, Rowland, or Levinson. The 3B and 4B will not have enough power.

I respect NSGarch's view here, but after owning 3.3s and 3.5s for a combined 6 years, and having heard them with so many amps in my home and at the dealer, the Brystons were by far the least musically involving of the bunch.

The issue of Brystons and Maggies comes up all the time and I think this is more due to marketing than due to people actually working hard to find an amp that brings on these speakers' musicality that few others can match....and certainly at this price point.

Amps that I tried included ARC VT130 (lush lush midrange and dimensionality but lacking headroom to drive the speakers to dynamics), VT100 (tonally coherent but same issue as VT130), Classic 150 (way too forward/fatiguing and still lacking headroom), Counterpoint NPS400 (absolutely phenomenol amp with great tonal coherency and lots of driveability) and Wolcott mono blocks which brought on the VT130 magic and the Counterpoint driveability.

If I was to go solid state, I would give serious consideration to the McCormack amps, especially the DNA500, or look at the higher powered Pass, Threshold or Rowland. Each of these products have far greater ability to bring on the Maggie magic than the very sterile Brytsons. I have nothing personal against the Bryston amps. My comments are simply relative to the amps here in discussion.

The most unfortunate downside of these speakers is that their cost is so affordable for what they can do. But they require a rather serious amplifier investment to truly hear their capability. Pairing them with high-powered lower-cost amps is not going to allow one to enjoy what makes these speakers so special. And what makes these sing even more is a top-notch preamp with great portray of space, decays, etc.

John

In my Maggie days I loved my Bryston 4B with my Maggies. I would keep the Bryston 3B for sure, and get another one. Bridge them. Brystons are wired perfectly for that. Just a switch in the back to mono and you're ready. You'll have the watts you'll need. And the Maggies will take it all and sound amazing. Then you will be ready for the 20.1s if you ever decide to move up to Maggie nirvana. peace, warren

Warren:
Bridging them is a good idea. I completely forgot about that. That sure would be cost effective. Does anyone have any experience with bridging 3B to power the Maggies this way?

How timely your question is. I just picked up a pair of 3.5rs and bought a Classe CA-200 to mate with them. The Classe is an extremely nice sounding amp. It is very neutral and does not really sound like tubes or SS, it just sounds natural. And this is coming from a dyed in the wool tube fanatic. It is very powerful and drives the Maggies with no trouble whatsoever. I can't begin to tell you how much I love this combination. Highly recommended.

Oz

Move up to a 4bsst or if you can swing it get the 14b, and then you can warm and sweetin thing's up with a tube preamp.You need big clean power with maggies first to open them up. Now if you want tube amps for the 3-series and up you better look to some manley neo 500's or the VTL 450 monos, The power company will love you for your efforts.

I second the vote for bridging the amps. This option would be the most cost effective, although there are reportedly sonic tradeoffs when amps are bridged. I biamped my MG-IIIs with excellent results for many years. You could use one amp for each speaker. I also believe there is a switch on the back of your amp that will allow them to be bridged. Consult your manual or give Bryston a call, they should be very helpful and can give you some hints as to the best way to go.

Bryston does not recommend bridging their amps into 4 ohm loads, so I don't think that is the way to go. I used a 3B-ST with a pair of MG12s, and that was a good match. Some people don't like Bryston with the true ribbon models, but Fremer mentioned in Stereophile a while ago hearing a Magnepan/Bryston system at a show and thinking it sounded pretty good. Don't remember which model, either 3.6s or 20s.