What does more power do for Magnepans?

more power is neither better or worse. playing a speaker louder is not better or worse. it is just louder.

i have been driving my 1.6s with 30 watss, listening at 72 to 82 db of spl. it's loud enough for me and i don't need more power.

the magnepans do not need a lot of power. a good 20 watt set is all you need. i have driven the speakers with 4 watts and within my listening level i had no problems.

you don't need 200 watts to enjoy magnepans.

I've had 1.6's for eight years. During that time, I went from a 200 wpc Adcom to a 100 wpc McCormack DNA-0.5. The DNA 0.5 was a better amp, and showed it. So I agree somewhat with Mr. Tennis, there is far more to this than power output. From there I went to 500 WPC McCormack DNA-1 monoblocks. These are a huge step forward from the previous amps. They certainly enable the Maggies to deliver more of their potential. This is not a loudness issue. They all delivered more that enough volume. All else being equal, my guess is that most people will experience less congestion in complex orchestral passages and better, tighter tympani with additional power.

I have the 9200 with the 1.6 Maggies. For months I have run one set of speaker cables to the 1.6 which I had Cardas jumpers on. Last week I decided to run 2 sets of speaker cables to each speaker and eliminate the jumper.
It's easy with the 9200 as there are 4 sets of binding post, 2 for the left and 2 for the right. Run one set to the highs and the other to the lows. This alone improved low end, detail, sound stage, etc. I do not like Bi-wire, I prefer to run 2 sets of cables.
I found by doing this I had to turn my volume down to what it was in the past.
This was a huge improvement across the board.
Your 3.5 or even the 3.6 I know is different but I know when the time is right I will try the 3.6 but will keep my 9200 ( I think )
I agree with Mrtennis: I first heard the 3.6 with a 35 watt Audio Research tube amp and could not believe the sound. When I asked about power and why so little I was told that in a very large room, grated you may want more power but you mainly want and need a amp that is high current. Power takes the back seat.
If you are using stock feet that came with the speakers I would highly recommend you consider the MYE stands. This alone was a nice improvement.
Also, what speaker cable are you using ?

Mrtennis is correct that Maggies sound great with low power amps. But Brownsfan is also correct that a high powered amp will show you another level of performance. This is not the case with all speakers, and accounts for the myth that Maggies absolutely need many watts. It's not about loudness. I don't know why this is, but it's real.

Go to Audio Asylum and locate the planar speaker forum.