I have Maggie MG 1.6's - need amp advice

My MG1.6 never sounded better than when driven by CarverPro ZR1600 digital power amps...600 watts/channel into 4 ohms. Synergy I think. You can buy these amps brand new for less than a grand. My experience, and some measurements, with these amps convinced me that Maggies "like" powerful amps.

At present I have come down to CI Audio D200 monoblocks, 350 watts into 4 ohms. This is enough for me because I run my custom subwoofer systems up to 80 Hz or higher. (The ZR1600 amps now drive the subwoofer systems).

Mrtennis...At least with Maggies, the "quality of sound" delivered at a five watt average power level (about six volts rms into 4 ohms)is better when it comes from a powerful amp although one would think that 100 watts would be plenty. That's my experience, and I am not alone. I haven't a clue why this is so.

By the way, you could actually try a ZR1600 amp for less than the cost of rolling tubes once!

Atmasphere...With a one-sided magnet, the field would get stronger in one direction and weaker in the other. I would therefore expect the speaker efficiency to change little with increased excursion, but with distortion increasing.
Do you have any solid info regarding the field spatial distribution? The diaphragm excurion is so small that I question how much field variation actually exists (as opposed to theory). I have always believed that getting the very low frequencies out of the woofer is helpful for cone drivers, but you point out that for Maggies it may be even more important.

Soundwatts...Yes, that will work. In general I favor "proper" biamping with a line level crossover, but Maggies are not your typical cone driver speakers. First of all, the MG1.6 crossover is, superficially, a model of simplicty, but is not that easy to duplicate with a line level electronic crossover, at least not one off the shelf.
High pass is 6 dB/octave. Low pass is 12 dB/octave. The crossover frequencies (3 dB points) are not the same. All this is taylored to suit the characteristics of the panels.

A better approach (for these speakers) is to upgrade the passive crossover. Change the iron core inductor to an air core, which you will need to mount externally on the back of the panel because of its size. After removing the stock inductor there is room to install upgraded capacitors internally. I did that. However the stock capacitors are not junk at all, and I would recommend that you leave them alone. I did not remove the socks. I cut a neat rectangular opening on the back over the cavity where the crossover resides. This opening is covered by a wooden plate on which the large air core inductor is mounted.

Benie...I think you got it backwards. I would say "Go for the watts and the current will come with it".

Watts are Voltage times Current. Voltage is easy to make. A handheld battery powered device, like a Geiger counter can make and use thousands of volts. Current requires a heavy duty power supply. The current drawn by a speaker depends on its impedance and the voltage which you ask the amp to deliver. A 60 watt amp will deliver the same current as a 600 watt amp if the required voltage is 1 volt. At some higher voltage level either amp will be unable to deliver enough current to prevent the voltage from falling. When it falls enough to represent the spec'd distortion level the power at that point is the spec'd power. So, bottom line, power describes current capability.

Most solid state amps are power-limited by current. Tube amps, whose power supplies run at several hundred volts, may hit an output voltage ceiling, resulting in a flat top on a sinusoidal signal called (for obvious reasons) "clipping". Their distortion rises slowly with power until it takes a sharp knee upwards at clipping. Solid state amps do not have such a sharp knee distortion increase, and for them "clipping" is generally taken as the power level where the gradually-increasing distortion reaches one percent.

In the way of "full disclosure" I have used up to 600 watt amps with my MG1.6, even when supported by subwoofers, and I believe that "size matters".

Atmasphere...OK: if you drive a ss amp hard enough it will clip. But (at least some that I have seen) the shape of the distortion vs power graph is characteristically different from tube amps. (However, I just checked the Hypex UcD digital amp module, and it does exhibit a sharp break like a tube amp, but then it is starting from way below 0.1 percent, so maybe it just looks dramatic. Perhaps it takes clipping to get distortion that high). As for the 1% distortion level occuring before clipping in a tube amp I think that this simply reflects the generally higher distortion levels of quite well regarded tube amps.

My ss amps have clip limiting. I doubt that I would approach their 600 watt rating, but if I did a gain reduction would prevent cliping, and its tweeter-damaging distortion. At lower power level the clip detection circuitry does nothing except listen to the signal so I don't think there is any adverse effect on the sound. Cheap tweeter insurance.