2. amps-preamps
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Solid state amp recommendations for Maggies?

I am looking for another amp to drive my magnepan LRS, looking for a solid state amp to deliver more detail than my current tube amp, but don't want to give up (much) of the soundstage and depth.

I have a small listening room with a near field set up, so I don't need a ton of power for ear piercing volume. I listen mostly to acoustic rock, acoustic jazz and female vocalists.  I want more the guitar on Keith don't go and hotel canifornia intro from hell freezes over to  to sound... better...

at the risk of sounding stupid, I am driving these $650 speakers with many thousands of dollars of electronics.  The amp is a Primaluna HP (80wpc using 4 EL34s per channel), CJ ET7 preamp, PS Audio Direct stream DAC and a Naim digital source. All with MG audio silver interconnects and speaker wire. Even the interconnects cost more than the LRS.  

I am very happy with my current set up, but would like to grab another amp to a change of pace.

My budget is $5-8K, used or new.  My room is such that mono blocks set up well, but that is not necessary. 

thoughts/recommendations?

 

 

meiatflask
rbertalotto
138 posts
 

The Eagles have some of the worst sound production in existence. They were penny rich and dollar dumb business people. They cut every corner they could out of greed for green and their record production took the biggest hit.

Most accurate thing I’ve read all week! I have MMGs and don’t have the HiFi budget you folks are playing with. I’ve driven them with four different amplifiers....Cambridge Audio 840 AZUR, Yamaha M45, VTA St120 Dynaco Tube clone and Sound Artist SA200ia.....As weird as it may sound, the $500 Sound Artist amplifier blows all the others away driving these speakers.......Just thought I’d throw this into this mix as many folks buying $650 (Recently now $750) speakers might find it impossible to spend upwards of $10,000 on an amplifier...You think?

 

gumbedamit
97 posts
 

I own and have owned several Maggie's.  My current system is the 20.1 paired with Classe CAM350'S .I would look for an early Canadian model unit. CA200, something in that category.  There's an Stereophile article reviewing the CAM350'S with 3.6's. That told me all I needed to know.  Check out the article before you make a decision. 

 

davidclarke
43 posts
 

Benchmark AHB-2 - Get 2.  Amazing amps!

 

 

liquidsound's avatar
liquidsound
146 posts
 

I would have to agree with Pass-Labs XA60.5 or better yet XA60.8 mono-blocs.  I had the XA30.8 stereo amp and it sounded terrific with 93db speakers.  I seldom moved the meter on it and I played some music pretty loudly !  Don't let the 60WPC fool you into thinking that's not enough power  . Pass designed these amplifiers with lots of power-supply.  They are 60WPC class A into 8 ohms and double into 4-ohms.  You should be able to find a pair of 60.8 mono's within your price-range.  Many times,  Maggies are demo'd with Pass-Labs amps which obviously sound great.  Good Luck on your amp-quest ! 

John

bishop148
40 posts
 

Save your money, buy something like an Emotiva power amp. Why? The designer of Phase Linear amps Bob Carver did something controversial many years ago.  He modified his inexpensive Phase Linear Amp to sound as good in blind A-B testing as amps costing 10 or more times expensive. IMHO power amps vary very little in sound quality, such that a cheap amp may even sound better than an expensive one.

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