Integrated Amp to match with Magico A3


Have just ordered a pair of Magico A3, and looking for integrated amplifier to pair with it. As I heard once which had a very disappointing result to pair with Gryphon 300 in a local Hifi show in Hong Kong. Reallly looking for recommendations on matching amplifier. Planned to get a Marantz PM-10, but worried that the single box may not be powerful enough to push the A3. On the other side, some said Hegel H360 with 4000+ damping factor may suit even better.

thank you in advance
eldonfung
Thanks @ kw6
Yes 6 WATTS.
I used to own a pair of Sonus Faber Guarneri Mementos speakers. There measured sensitivity were 87db, and I drove them with a Krell amp. To me they seemed like a 86db speaker, hard to drive.
The new Magico A3’s seem pretty easy to drive, and I think there measured sensitivity is just under 88db. Not hard to drive at all. Actually, l find mine easy to drive loud. The new Magico A3’s are a very good
speaker. Love Them.
SILTECH




I have the A3 in my system for about a week now. I am playing it with the Pass INT-250.  A big WOW!!
I also own the Magico A3s driven by an Hegel 360 and I’m really enjoying this combination.

I also had the opportunity to hear the A3s driven by the new 
Soulution 330 integrated amp: very very good match with the A3s!!!


Folks, I'm finally getting my pair of Magico A3s delivered to my home this Monday (Labor Day). I am planning to follow David_Ten's advise and test several amplifiers at home. I have a Marantz AV8805 and a NAD M27, so I will be initially driving the Magico A3s with the the AV8805 and the M27. My sound system is also used as a surround system for watching TV and movies.

Most of the discussions so far have centered on integrated amps. Given that I have the Marantz AV8805, I think that it makes sense for me to use a regular amp, rather than an integrated amp, to drive the A3s. I welcome suggestions that won't break the bank. I have a friend who has many different tube amps (including vintage ones), so I will ask him to lend me some of them, to evaluate how they sound with the A3s. 

I have to confess that when I was auditing the A3s at the store, I did a fairly extensive A/B comparison between my NAD M27 and a SPL s800  2 channel amp, both driven by a Marantz AV7704, and I could not discern that much of a difference between them. This tends to lend credence to the axiom that "an ideal amplifier should act as a pure gain." Thus, as long as both amps are operating within their specified ranges, ideally, there should be little differences between them. 
Rhg88, there are a couple of things wrong with your summation about just getting an amp, and not hearing a lot of differences between the two amps.
1: Your Marantz AV 7704 is probably not a great preamp2: The testing conditions ie cables and hooking up to an inexpensive surround sound piece could be a huge limiting factor in hearing a difference between the amps3: Neither the M27 or the SPL S800 may not be great amps4: The M27 and the SPL 800 may both sound similar.
One of the reasons that people are recommending an integrated is the integrated amp will have a suitable preamp stage built in.
The quality of the preamp is very important for these reasons:
1: It is a first stage amplifier that increases the amplitude of the line level signal to match the amplifier2: The quality of the volume regulation preserves time and phase information which can increase of decrease your image.3: The preamp stage may hinder the system's overall level of resolution.
Your test was fine what you should have done would be to substitute a high quality integrated amplifier to see how much better that device would perform.
Dave and TroyAudio Doctor NJ