I am considering buying a pair of Magnepan 20.7i speakers (maybe I will receive them before the snow flys ;)) and would like the latest opinions on what are the best pairings for the 20.7i's. What are your thoughts?
Power- hungry speakers! I bought a Perreaux 2150B for such use! 340/680/920wpc @8/4/2 ohms! There was one on eBay for less than $1K. A great sounding amp equal to a big Bryston, Levinson or Krell.
I have run my .7s with a PrimaLuna integrated and my MMGs with my AES SixPacs. My brother ran his 3.6s with Parasound JC1s. I love tube amps but if there is one speaker that needs good solid state power, it’s the big Maggies. The .7s played OK with the PrimaLuna, a change to Gold Lion KT-88s helped but a solid state amp worked better. The MMGs with the SixPacs was a total fail with some kind of distortion at the crossover frequency. I put a Parasound A21 on them and that sorted them out. I think the JC5 is your best pick and it might work well with the LS28SE but I have to admit, I didn’t like the two AR preamps I had but I’m thinking it might work if you like super detail vs a more musical presentation. I would give the Cary SLP-05 a solid thumbs up with a big Parasound or a Bryston. A pair of JC1s would be spectacular but they are pricy nowadays. And they are HUGE. Not sure if any of that helps but I thought I throw that out there.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.