1. The VTL 125's should have enough power for the levels you specified. I was using the VTL ST-85 in a smaller 11'x14' room and it could play the 1.6's at average levels in the low 90dBs without showing signs of stress.
2. I don't believe the larger 1.6's are harder to drive than the MG-12s, which I've also owned. The 1.6 go a little lower in the bass, but that shouldn't be a problem for any decent amp.
3. Setup depends to a large degree on your room acoustics and whether you'd be listening with the Maggies on the short wall or the long wall.
In your size room it should be easy enough to get them sounding excellent. I'd start by put them on your "short" 17.5' wall maybe 4 to 6 feet from the front wall and maybe about 4 or 5 feet in from the side walls, slightly to moderately toed in with the tweeters outboard.
It's not difficult to get the Maggies to image well but small changes in toe-in will affect the image size and focus. As for bass, if possible I like to play something familiar with extended bass content. Then Waltz the speaker around (while playing) till you hear the bass get stronger, as per your preference. The only challenge of placing them will be to get excellent imaging and the best bass at the same time. If you can't get the bass right on the short wall you can always try them on the long wall and see how that goes. (On your longer wall you'd need greater distance from the side walls to maintain proper center fill.)
4. I would likely sit a few feet farther back than the distance between the two speakers measured center-to-center. You can experiment with moving your seat slightly forward or slightly back to adjust for room nodes.
The QR tweeters can be a bit bright depending on your room acoustics and what your electronics are doing. If you need to attenuate the highs, aside from using room treatments, I've found that using Speltz AntiCables between my preamp and amp, along with the Speltz speaker cables, works better to tone things down than using the resistor attenuators that Magnepan supplies.
Happy Holidays!
2. I don't believe the larger 1.6's are harder to drive than the MG-12s, which I've also owned. The 1.6 go a little lower in the bass, but that shouldn't be a problem for any decent amp.
3. Setup depends to a large degree on your room acoustics and whether you'd be listening with the Maggies on the short wall or the long wall.
In your size room it should be easy enough to get them sounding excellent. I'd start by put them on your "short" 17.5' wall maybe 4 to 6 feet from the front wall and maybe about 4 or 5 feet in from the side walls, slightly to moderately toed in with the tweeters outboard.
It's not difficult to get the Maggies to image well but small changes in toe-in will affect the image size and focus. As for bass, if possible I like to play something familiar with extended bass content. Then Waltz the speaker around (while playing) till you hear the bass get stronger, as per your preference. The only challenge of placing them will be to get excellent imaging and the best bass at the same time. If you can't get the bass right on the short wall you can always try them on the long wall and see how that goes. (On your longer wall you'd need greater distance from the side walls to maintain proper center fill.)
4. I would likely sit a few feet farther back than the distance between the two speakers measured center-to-center. You can experiment with moving your seat slightly forward or slightly back to adjust for room nodes.
The QR tweeters can be a bit bright depending on your room acoustics and what your electronics are doing. If you need to attenuate the highs, aside from using room treatments, I've found that using Speltz AntiCables between my preamp and amp, along with the Speltz speaker cables, works better to tone things down than using the resistor attenuators that Magnepan supplies.
Happy Holidays!