Giantkiller components

Yeah, I would have to say go for the $500 offer from Magnapan. Damn hard to beat that one, even going DIY.

Keep the budget low on the digital front end and get a Toshiba 3960 or 4960 universal, even better and mod it. That would run you about $200 tops.

Then take the savings from your front end and buy a used Pathos Classic One integrated (does that have enough juice at 70 tube watts for the Maggie's). I've seen them on Audiogon for less than $1000 in the past.

Oh yeah, then go make your own cables from one of the many, many recipe's available.

Yes, I'm advocating a lot of DIY and used stuff, but that's the only way to get good performance and value these days.

Enjoy,
Bob

I have to agree with Bob on this one. Being a DIY fan myself, I saved about 2 grand on my Teres. Almost everything else I bought used, or at a substantial discount. I got my AN speakers for about 45% off because of a knocked in back corner, and he threw in a set of AN speaker cables too!

Good deals on used gear are becoming harder to find, though. That's what makes DIY so attractive. And it's more fun.

Joe

LUXMAN R-117 RECEIVER!!!!!!

I have put together a low priced, high end, system that rivals many systems I've heard costing 5-10 times the price. It takes patience and careful choices especially with matching receiver amps and interconnects to get proper sound from this $1,500 system of lightly previously owned components.--
1) magnepan 1.6 QR speakers
2)luxman r-117 160 watt/channel receiver (with CD bypass)
3)sony 75es cd player
4)john risch designed belden 89259 interconnects
5)nordost super flatline shotgun speaker cables
6)powervar 12 line conditioner for receiver
7)ieps digital line filter/conditioner for cd player
8)If you want to lower the cost of the system to the $1100-1200 range you can use a nakamichi sr-3 receiver and skip the powervar 12 and use one single line conditioner. The nakamichi is superb for all but the loudest orchestral passages and perfect for chamber music, jazz, pop and vocals.
9)all components ( except cd player) were purchased from Audiogon and Ebay