2. amps-preamps
  3. 149186-5938

My speakers are set. Magnepan Tympani IVs

A year ago I acquired a pair of restored Tympani IVs (not IVa). I have been driving them with an Adcom  GFA - 555 that I have had for decades.  The matching pre-amp died and has been replaced with a Schiit SYS Passive pre.

The primary source was CD but has transitioned to a Bluesound Node 2 running TIDAL. I will be playing the MQAs whenever possible. My musical tastes are eclectic, with a pronounced preference for female vocalists, piano and acoustic guitar. Genres include rock of the 60s, jazz, folk, world, Celtic and classical.

The Tympanis do not suffer from the lower register issues to the same degree as some of the other Magnepans, but are still prone to occasionally overwhelming highs.  New components should tend towards the warm to mitigate this issue.

It is time to upgrade the amp.  The consensus judgement of people whom I respect and whom own these speakers are that they should be bi-amped.  Options include separate amps for highs and lows and an electronic crossover (Horizontal ?) or monoblocks (Vertical ?)   

I am only into the Tympanis for $1000, but have budgeted $2000 for amplification. One thing I have come to learn is that the traditional percentages of investment don’t always apply when Magnepans are involved as they offer such a high sound quality/cost ratio.

Cables and room treatments are on the to-do list. As always, I am here to draw upon the experience of the Audiogon community.  Please share your thoughts.  If you see something for sale here, please call it out as I am having trouble sorting through the plethora of options.
kythyn

Showing 3 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,088 posts
 
atmasphere - will the RM-200 handle the Tympanis IVs full range or should I plan on a class d for the bass panels?
The Tympanis allow either, and the RM200 would have no worries playing full range. The real question then is 'is 200 watts enough power'? That has to do with the size of the room and your listening habits.

When I heard them 200 watts seemed like plenty of power.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,088 posts
 
@kythyn   He ran a set of our MA-1s and also MA-2s. IME you can use any good 200 watt tube amp and it will run quite nicely. A good inexpensive example is the RM-200 from Roger Modjesky.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,088 posts
 
By 'restored' have the 'voice coils' on the membranes been checked out or replaced?
This is a speaker that tubes can drive quite effectively. A customer of ours (Kalvin Dahl, formerly of ARC) ran a set of our amps on IVs for quite some time. We found that they were quite sensitive to speaker cables, and ultimately placed the amps directly behind the speakers so that we could run very short (8") speaker cables. This really helped out the bass.
More to discover