Can single ended 211 or 212 amplifiers drive magnepan 20.7?


Dear All

I have been reading up about maggies and am chasing after a huge immersive soundstage that the maggies provide, and would like to combine them with a sweet and musical sound that single ended tube amplifiers provide. 

I currently own the cary 805 ae mono blocks which uses a single ended 211 class A output of ~25watts, and am wondering if an amplifier like this or something much bigger like the 212 single ended tube amplifier with 40-50w of class A1 output can drive the magnepan 20.7s? 

Cant seem to find much info on the web, or people with any experience. Would definitely appreciate any advice or sharing of experiences here! :)

 

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Thegreenman

thegreenman

Showing 2 responses by bdp24

 

Correct on all counts @thegreenman! Modjeski was able to coax 100 watts out of a single pair of KT-88 tubes not by driving them hard, but by doing just as you suggest---creating a wonderful circuit. You can read all about the amp (in both original and Mk.2 iterations) in the Stereophile reviews by Michael Fremer.

 

 

@assetmgrsc: To achieve more than "pretty good" sound with a sub augmenting your Maggies, look into the OB/Dipole Woofer offered by Rythmik Audio in conjunction with GR Research. Magnepan has been working on a dipole woofer to mate with their speakers for a few years now (Wendell Diller has always insisted that omnipole subs---dynamic woofers in an enclosure---"do not work" with dipole loudspeakers), but no need to wait.

As for a tube amp to use with Maggies, Roger Modjeski designed his Music Reference RM-200 tube amp specifically for low impedance loads. 100 + wpc from a pair of KT-88 tubes per channel, 5,000 to 10,000 hours lifespan. The amp resided in the Stereophile Recommended Components List for a decade, Michael Fremer’s "reasonably priced tube amp reference." Out-of-production (though that may be changing), but available used for from $2,000 (original iteration) to around $3,000 (Mk.2).