New Maggie 1.7 owner, amp ?

The old standby for Maggies is a Bryston, the 4b can be had easily in your price range. If you don't like it you can easily sell it for little or no loss. I use Wyred monos for my 1.6s and will not be changing amps any time soon, they have no problem powering my maggies to ear splitting volumes with plenty left in reserves.

As crazy as it sounds the new Adcom GFA 555SE ran a pair of 1.7s at my friend's store. He is not an Adcom dealer but for $1299.00 retail new it is a bargian. It does sound much better than the origial 555 and the 555 II. I am not much of an Adcom fan but this new amp now has a much better driver input board, has balanced inputs and has better output devices than the previous Adcom models. It was a shocker how well it worked with the 1.7. It actually had real bass and I like it better than any of the new digital amps. 200Watts per channel and 2.5 db of head room and stable at 1 ohm which means lots of current and the 1.7s like lots of current.

I'm new to buying better audio and I'm restricted by a budget. My purchases have to be well thought out. I was interested to see Bryston has a long warranty. What other amps have these long warranties?

Also I may want upgrade later on and I want what I buy to have a decent resale value. And if I buy used what do I look for from a seller?

WARRANTYS DO NOT MATTER.Are you going to listen to a warranty? Go with a amp, preamp set up.this will save upgrades later on.Always a good idea to decide on speakers 1st.Odyssey,Threshold,Emotiva Great value in power amps.

I owned the Maggie 1.6 for a while, and having worked with CIA, Wyred4Sound, Rowland, Peachtree Audio, etc. I would not use any of them as my preferred amplification for that speaker. I believe the high end of the 1.7 has not been reworked, so I would likely seek a stout class A/B design or hybrid like the Moscode 402AU, which I reviewed. High power class D with the Magnepan wore on my ears over time.

In my office I use the Eminent Technology LFT-6, a magnetic planar design, with two HSU STF-1 powered subs. The Peachtree Audio Nova is my amp, but this is a concession to convenience, not what I would use if the speakers were my primary rig. The Nova is commendable, but like other Class D designs I have used does not have the richness of a Class A/AB design which is imo necessary to get Maggies to sound their best.

The Monarchy Audio SM-70 Pro (reviewed; run mono) was outstanding overall with the Eminent Technology LFT-8B; the Monarchy SE-100 MkII may be superb with Magneplanar or E.T. Though it may not power the speaker with unlimited dynamics, it would likely be a more sensuous sound.