Chazzbo ask's "How much juice for Maggie 3.6's???"

they'll work with any amount of power, but they want lots and lots to truly sound their best. those are fantastic speakers, but they're terribly inneficient. i'd recommend no fewer than 300 wpc.

The Rotel 1090 Is a bargain especialy if you can find used for under $1500!

The Maggies are truly a wonderful speaker. Being a former dealer for them (I'm no longer managing that store) we found that what they tend to like are amplifiers with good current swing. At minimum, the big Adcoms and Rotels will light them up nicely. Given the budget, moving up into bigger, exotic amplifiers such as the Aragon 8008BB, Levinson, Rowland Research, etc., you’ll find a pretty cool trait throughout the Magnepan speaker line: The better the electronics get, the more the speaker rises to the occasion. That will happen with most speakers most of the time but much more so with these wonderful speakers. They could easily become the most affordable component in the system and not hold any information back... One word of caution though, be careful of electronics that lean towards being really analytical. Since the 3.6 uses the ribbon tweeter, it will show you the dryness or forwardness of what's in front of them and you may need to knock the tweeter level down using the supplied resistor from the manufacturer. While on the one hand it's nice to know you can fix the brightness, avoiding overly detailed or bright electronics to begin with will only make the system more listenable for extended listening enjoyment.

Hi Chazzbo,
I used BK202ST with Maggie IIIa's for many years, always a little dissappointed with dynamics, transients, and resolution, though the amp drove them plenty loud. By coincidence, I borrowed the Adcom 5802 and was amazed at how much better the speakers sounded, not subtle, no A/Bing necessary. As I mentioned to someone recently in an ealier and similar post, I have never owned Adcom and am not specifically recommending the 5802 (though it did wonders for the IIIa's) as I am suggesting auditioning several amps, and certainly some over 150WPC with the speakers. Maggies performance seems more dependent on amplifier compatibility than any other speakers I have owned. Good luck!

C.

Dear Chazzbo,

I own the 1.6qr. I powered it with the Mcintosh MA6450 integrated rated at 100 @4ohms. I sold that and bought the Proceed amp 2 rated at 250 wps @4ohms. WOW! the power upgrade really made the maggies sing. Give them all the quality power you can. Hope this helps

Best Regards and Happy Listening,
Bennett