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Suggestions for the best SS amp for Tympani 4a's

Happy Holidays fellow A'goners,

I need some help with trying to pick the appropriate SS amp to power my Magnepan Tympani 4a's.

I have been using a Joule Electra 80-80 with Paul Speltz autoformers. I know that this amp doesn't produce enough watts to do these speakers justice. I love the OTL sound, but unfortunately, this amp is really not appropriate for the speakers that I currently have.

I would like to keep my choices of ss amps to 4k or so in cost.
My short list at present would be:

1) Parasound JC-1's...used
2) Pass Labs X250...I don't know if this amp has enough juice to
adequately power the 4a's either.

If I make this switch in amps, I want it to be a positive step forward
so any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and Happy Listening!!
128x128scifi
6 responses Add your response
gregadd
574 posts
 
These speakers were designed for Audio Research. How about a ARC VT 100 or VT200. The JC 1 is good, also Bryston 7b. The maggies are easy to drive but need power to play loud where they really come allive.
greg
metramonkey
1 posts
 
I have a pair of Tympani ID's and I was briefly driving them with my NAD 50w 320BEE, which actually worked, although no doubt they weren't singing. I switched to an NAD C372 which has 150WPC and they came to life, not bad for an amp under $800. I briefly tried bridging the 372 into one speaker and it was alive, although NAD doesn't recommend bridging into a 4 ohm load I didn't have any problems at moderate volumes, which in my case wasn't my neighbor two flights commenting that I had an awsome set of speakers, I have audiophile neighbors.

If you have the bucks I would definitely try a Bryston amp but for under $1300 the NAD 372/272 set up is great.

Sincerely the metramonkey
cwlondon
1,210 posts
 
Have you thought about a Mark Levinson 23.5?

Mine was highly recommended "off the record" by the factory.
mikej
172 posts
 
A new BEL 1001 mk V or a pair of used Mk IIs or IVs if you can find them.
rsquared
24 posts
 
Scifi, if you happen to check back here, give Mikej's BEL 1001 mkV (or a pair of used mk IVs) serious consideration. I switched from a Bryston 4BNRB to a BEL 1001 mk IV and was very pleased. The mk V is a big improvement.

I know of very few ss amps, and certainly none near their (relatively low) price that produce such effortless openness with planars. They produce prodigious amounts of current and never break a sweat driving difficult loads. BEL's designer/manufacturer is a music-loving minimalist (mil. spec. low parts count, short, simple signal paths) who constantly improves his design. This is his only electronic product.

Good luck.
satch
329 posts
 
I've heard them with some Accuphase mono's, and it sounded wonderfull. Source was a Oracle Delphi/Air Tangent/Ortofon MC3000, and after I heard that, I wanted to throw all of my gear out of the window.
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