The Wolcotts pretty much ruled, by a wide margin with my old maggie 1.6's. Whatever you do, make sure it is a tube amp. To me maggies sound much much better with tubes.
I would get a conrad-johnson cav-50 if I were you. I drove mine with an old mv-50 for awhile, and it was a great combination. In fact the guy who bought my maggies later bought my mv-50 ! The amp is only 45w, but had significantly more powerful bass with the maggies than my 100w ARC vt100m2. |
I use maggies with the Musical Fidelity A3cr pre and power amps and am VERY happy with the results. |
Run my modded 1.6's with an Adcom 200wpc and Morrison ELAD
preamp. Used, both sell for $800. Nothing gives you more
value for the buck! You need to add a zero ($8k) to hear
any improvement.Yes tubes are nice but tiring after a while.
For claasical and jazz this is the best for the $$ Add a
Fanfare FM tuner and you can enjoy Free Music = to CD's.
You have the right speaker,don't skimp on the amps.They
doo make a diference especially w/revealing Maggies.Enjoy ! |
A 36 foot long room is "medium sized"? Well here I go again: for new equipment, Bryston 4B ST is just were the lines for sonics and realistic price cross. Call it the price/performance crossover and get back to the music. |
I power my 3.6's with a Classe CA400. Cables are a double bi-wire run of AP Oval 9's. You may want to try one of the Classe integrated amps. Not less than 100 watts though, maggies need power. |
Posters,thank you very much! |
Maggie likes tubes, but maggie also likes power.....and good tube power tends to be expensive. I have driven my maggies (2.7's) with a Classe integrated (CAP-100 and loved it) or go with a 150 or 151, avoid the newer less gutsy Classe integrateds (CAP-80 or 101). Bryston also does a nice job with maggies. (I currently use a 4B-ST with a tube pre) I don't know however, if the Bryston BP-60 integrated has enough guts, though it is well reviewed. Try it, if you don't like it, you probably could resell it for what you got it for. Bryston and Classe, because of their ability to control and reproduce bass, are often paired with maggies. |
Dear Pragmatist:
I started out with the Audio Refinement Complete Integrated, a fine unit and great value, however just a bit underpowered for my Magneplanar 1.6qr's. My room is the same size as yours, but I have high vaulted ceilings.
I sold the Audio Refinement on Audiogon and bought the Mcintosh 6450 integrated amp. WOW! The sound is fantastic on classical, jazz, big band and classic rock. The control features are wonderful and very useful. The build quality is unmatched. I was somewhat reluctant to buy a Mac, thinking I wouldn't be in the audiophile bunch. I don't care what bunch I'm in, the Mac holds it's own against most of the audiophile brands.
By the way, I'm not related to the post above regarding MA6450.
Very highly recommended, and worth "every penny"!
Best Regards, and Happy Listening,
hififile |
I bi-amp my Maggie 2c's with one Fisher 800 Receiver per side. The Fishers have had the pre and amp sections seperated at the processor loop, one does double duty of preamping and amping while the other just has to amp. These can be picked up for $200 ea, gone over by a tech and have the amp/preamp seperated for another 120-180, while a new set of output tubes if needed cost $80. The pleasure of bi amping, seperate dual mono transformers, and 64 RMS of tube power per channel make this an unbeatable sub $800 setup. Email me at ScrabblExecution@aol.com with comments. |
Pragmatist, just LOVED your above response: "My budget is what is necessary (used,in a buyer's market) to match Maggies' capabilities, but not any more. I don't want to buy redundant quality or quantity or both."
It is NO wonder you liked what Roger had to say on his site about cabling. He told you exactly what you wanted to hear i.e. that you need not spend anything more than to purchase what would "work". Sean
> |
I could not agree more with Jtinn, the Wolcotts on Maggies are incredible. Control and low distortion like a transistor, body and warmth like only tubes can do. |
A friend has been running a McIntosh MA6450 (100wpc @ 4 ohms solid state) on Maggies (not sure which) and they sound excellent. He is thrilled with the looks and performance of this setup and I would agree. Mc integrateds seem to be hard to find on used market though. Last 6450 I saw went for $1400 on ebay a while back. Good luck! |
Jonathan I didn't know you knew Maggie too, she is weird! |
Prag,
I sold my bryston 3bst to a friend of mine who owns maggies. I let him audition it at home, after we hooked it up he listened to one song and 10 minutes of the dvd(the matrix). He looked at me, smiled and handed over the $1000.00, audition done. I must admitt the 3bst really made the mags sing and play very loud. You may want to buy the 4bst with double the power. You may find the 4bst around $1,200 to 1,400 used. About 2-5 yrs old. Very solid amp and the 20 yr warranty is transferable. I have also heard the 4bst on the bigger mags 3.6 and the combo was truely awesome. I'd go for the 4bst. Good luck, pete |
I have to agree with Tim for the most part. But, I prefer Maggie's with a particular tube amplifier. I thought the best sound I ever heard out of the 1.6's was with a pair of Wolcott P220M amps on them. It made the speakers sound absolutley world class. |
Tireguy,and others:
My budget is what is necessary(used,in a buyer's market) to match Maggies' capabilities, but not any more. I don't want to buy redundant quality or quantity or both.
Thanks |
Well I know a maggie and she just loves chicken!
This may be common knowledge for you but I would stay away from tubes(which happen to be the only int. that I know much about). Lots of people talk very highly about Rowland and Accuphase int. amps, and more people talk about the synergy(sorry for those who don't like that word) between Rowland and Magnepan as being very good. Good luck and let us know what your budget is and we can point you in the right direction(i.e. away from krell, that was a joke no need to start flaming!)
Tim |
