Resolving amps

VAC 300.1

Mr. Bill,

What speakers you have in mind? Amplifier does not work in vacuum, you know..

I have Maggie 3.5s and also Sony SS M9ED speakers. I'm running a PW Dac straight to my amps.

My Forte' Audio Model 55 seems to work with my Silverline Preludes to provide the best imaging and resolution I can remember (can I remember imaging?...hmmm). Single wired sounds better than bi. I've owned, among other piles of stuff, Vandersteens, tube and SS line stage preamps with Eagle 2, Aragon, Parasound (unhip sort of but VERY good amp), Acurus, various Adcoms...blah blah...and the Forte'/Prelude combo is very revesaling (currently with a recently discontinued Adcom 715 preamp...another amazing value). I stuck a REL Q150E sub in the system and it really opens up the soundstage for some reason. Who knew?

Revesaling is almost as important as revealing.

The modified Counterpoint being sold now on Audiogon will sound great with the Maggies and do exactly what you want. I am not selling it and you cannot have mine.

Happy Listening

Another vote for VAC 300.1. However, I think that this is a sum of the system as a whole and not necessarily something that an amp will bring to the table, on its own.

If you are attempting to run Magnepans, you should look at the Magnepan threads. They are a bit of a special case.

McCormack DNA 500 was the best at resolution I've had.

Maggies like a lot of power. I would choose between the following:

McCormack DNA-500
Modwright KWA-150
Clayton Audio M100 or M200 class A amps

IME Maggies are easy to drive if the amp is alright with the load. A lot of tube amps can do the job other than this. So if you want a tube amp, often you can use a set of ZEROs http://www.zeroimpedance.com and do quite well. Sixty to eighty watts does seem to be a good minimum in a lot of rooms though.

Windell Diller of Magnaplanar has told me on several occasions that the best he has ever heard the 20.1s sound was with a set of 200-watt tube amplifiers.