Tubes and less sensitive speakers

@boxcarman - Magnepans are typically very inefficient and require high current amps to get the best out of them.  This is why most amp recommendations for Maggies are on the solid state side.  Not to say there aren’t tube amps out there that sound good with them (I will differ to @atmasphere as more of an expert on that subject). 

There are a lot of older threads on Audiogon that go into this in greater detail.  I’d search through them and spend some time reading.

@russ69 does have a good suggestion on using a tube preamp with a solid state amp or even a hybrid amp with a tube input section, to keep the tube sound in the mix.

... my 2 cents....

@atmasphere  -  I stand corrected.  I've always based my efficieny for Maggies on their published specs, but the reasoning about the line source behavior makes sense.  I even took a moment to test the

...they sound just as loud ten feet away as they do when you are only a foot away.

and I agree.  In my ~20 years of Maggies in my secondary system, it was something that I never paid attention to.

Just goes to show, we can always learn something new every day.