2. amps-preamps
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Power amp upgrades for Mirage, M3si speakers

Hello forum members, I am the happy owner of a pair of M3si's. I use them mostly for music and some home theatre. I would like to upgrade my power amp (currently Acurus 200w/ch) and possibly my cables (Audioquest Crystal biwired). I was hoping you could share some opinions, comments, and/or insights that might help guide me. My preamp is an Acurus Act3 upgrading to an almost Aragon Stage One, Toshiba SD 9200 DVD-A possibly replaced by the Denon 2900 universal player, Monster and Audioquest interconnects.
Based on my research, 200+ WPC power amps candidates are Aragon 8008 MkII, McCormick DNA 225 (some, although maybe unfounded, concern about all the UPGRADES??), Conrad Johnson MF2500A. I was advised to also consider EAD Powermaster multichannel. I like my music laid back not too forward, huge soundstage, all genres but mostly jazz, classical, soft rock, blues, R&B, etc.
I am willing to buy (~$2,200. budget) good condition pre-owned equipment.

Thanks in advance.
awegr8
7 responses Add your response
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
The Mirage M3si is a speaker I have listened to hundreds of times, great speakers and I like them even better than the M1's. They are one of the most power hungry speakers I have listened to and are laid back ( Dark sounding ) to me. The Acurus is a poor choice for them, you may already know this of course. The Aragon mono's would be great with them, or aragon stereo amp if you can't swing the mono's. The McCormick would be great also, Very nice amp. I have a krell ksa-250 I use with my large speakers, it would also be a great amp with the M3si's.
mejames
986 posts
 
try a pair of Counterpoint SA-220's in mono block configuration 600 watts @8 ohms per channel would sound very nice cost about $1500 for a used pair. actually one stereo SA-220 drove my Mirage M1 Si speakers no problems whatsoever.
would recommend XLO TYPE 5 speaker cables.
lafish
151 posts
 
use Sphinx. A good match. Myth series is good enough.
polara
72 posts
 
odyssey mono blocks-buy the used pair available here and send to klaus for the extreme upgrade-bumps power to 300 wpc @8ohm and these things are smooth , clean, clear and strong(bass), will handle hard load speakers no problem.
you also get the rest of the warranty,if you have some time call klaus and ask him some questions, he is a great guy and will be honest with his comments.
lotusm50
31 posts
 
The advice for you to consider the EAD powermaster was pretty good. I have a pair of M-3si's that I bi-amp with a Powermaster 1000 (5x200 watts). It sounds great. I also have the bass below 65Hz crossed-over to a pair of Mirage BPSS-210 subwoofers (through a modded FX-3) and that helped the sound of the M-3si's significantly. Soundstage is wide and deep (be sure to have your M-3si's a good distance away from the back wall). The Powermaster has clean, is just on the warm side of neutral, with a laidback sound with plenty of muscle. These amps are a bargain on the used market.

As suggested by Sogood, you might look further into the pre-amp upgrade. I've found that makes a big difference, and the clarity.neutrality of the Powermaster will let you hear the differences.
awegr8 OP
1 posts
 
Thank you all for your knowlegeable and insightful feebdack. I do appreciate the inputs.
zapper
68 posts
 
I have a pair of M3 that I drive with 1 of the new Carver Pro 1600 and it does things for them that my Classe 400 could not do. Bass, clarity, power are all improved along with dynamics and overall volume.
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