Magnepan 1.7 i - Amp suggestions


Dear Amigos !

Once again thank you for all your Help last time helping me to decide on some Speakers ! Very valuable !

I finally did get the Magnepan´s 1.7. With the kind help from Peru´s Magnepan Distributor I had them built at the Magnepan Factory and shipped directly to Santiago, CHILE.

They are sitting in my music room !!

Now I need to put them into working status...very eager !

Could you please help me with some Amp alternatives ? to drive them .

Thank you in advance,

Best regards,

Robert

rpeebles
Agree that you should avoid anything Class D unless you can audition it first. None are good enough to gamble on anyway. The best ones merely match a decent class AB amp. 

The Halo Integrated is a decent match for the 1.7s but a Yamaha A-S2100 would be better. It produces less RMS wattage but has a much larger power supply, which is what really matters when it comes to Maggies. The same reason  why the poster above got better results with a Prima Luna over the Rogue Pharaoh - it's all about the power supply. 



Johnto is spot on. My class D experiment with 290w mono bridged also failed and the Maggies clipped the amps at 82db in dynamic passages. 
What I found was that the key is the Power Supply and the Capacitance.  My Odyssey has Dual 400 VA transformers, 180,000 AuF Memory and provides >60 amps delivered current. Hence, the Maggies sing without the slightest struggle. Choose Class A/B direct coupled, Loads of memory & current delivery and you will not have to learn the expensive lesson buying again. Do not get lost in looking at Watts but focus on power details and the ability of the amp to store enough power to handle dynamics that push you down into 2ohms.. Bryston & Odyssey will do nicely. Consult with other Magnepan owners as well.  Cheers.
There is no better amp than the Sanders Magtech for Planar and electrostatic speakers. Got to his website and read some of his white papers. Very informative. Good luck finding a used version. Once people have his equipment, they don't give it up. Ask yourself why.
I use a pair of Odyssey all in monos.  I tried a couple class D amps and the music was just blah.  A couple other AB units I tried went onto protection mode.  The Odysseys have the current needed to get everything out of the Maggie's.  With a Don Sachs tube pre amp, those monos and the 1.7i's; along with streaming through a modified tube DAC using NOS tubes, I'm currently listening to the finest music I've ever had.  And Ive had quite a few systems in my day.
PS....get rid of those steel jumpers and try a pair of inexpensive Anti Cable jumpers.  You'll hear an obvious difference with the change.