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

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.

The stereophile measured this speaker well and came up with a quite low efficiency and lower than advertized impedance.

Tube amps use output transformers with secondary taps for loadmatching and typically do well with "nice" loads. The reflected load impedance may well match the output tubes, unlike solid state amps where the voltage on the load does not change much  with the load impedance. 

These Maggies don't fit into the "nice" category either for load impedance or efficiency.  I think you be chasing your tail with these speakers trying to find a suitable SS amp. It is hard to beat tube amps, especially if they have sturdy power supplies that don't dip under peak loads, i.e. massive capacitive energy storage.

Look for speakers with 90+ dB/ 1W /1m.

Beware of the "2.83V" spec used in speaker measurements for tube amps which mostly resemble a "current source" rather than a "voltage source". The 2.83V is used to mask impedance problems. 

 

 

I have Maggie 3.7i and I am currently running them with them between a Bryston 4BST and BAT VK655SE.  I have also used Parasound (two thumbs down) and Upgraded Haflers DH600 (Good).  the Brystons win easily.  If you really want a mellow sound and really don't care about imaging and dynamic range then the BAT might be right for you.  They Brystons preserve the speed, impact and imaging potential of the Maggies.  On paper the BAT's should have been a great match with it's higher power, higher current and mammoth power supply, but I will be upgrading back to Bryston.    

@meiatflask 

With the PrimaLuna HP, I believe you can roll in the Tung-Sol KT-120 tubes. Have you tried that? I think you would be surprised how good the LRS would sound using the PrimaLuna with the KT-120 tubes.

In my somewhat larger (14'x28') room, I'm having no trouble driving my 1.7 Maggies with either my 100W Rogue Cronus Mag. II  withe KT-120 tubes, or my old SS 200/350W ADCOM. Listening to the same music as you, at moderate levels, both amps do incredibly well. A little larger stage and presence with the Rouge and slightly more dynamics and punch with the ADCOM.

I think the idea that the smaller Maggies need massive amounts of power to sound good, particularly in a small space at moderate volumes, is quit overstated and a bit overblown. If considering a future move up to the larger 3.7i or the 20.7 then investing a Bryston 4BSST or Cubed would be a great match with any of the Maggies. JMO.......Jim

Hello, I have many years of experience in hifi audio.  There are some amplifiers I can easily recommend but a more important point to make is about quality.  I’ve never had good success matching tube amps with Magnepan speakers.  And also had to go through many Solid State amps till I found the one that sounded great on my Magnepans. If I were you, I’d first be heavily leaning toward a Class A design amp because I’ve always found them to sound the best. Class A designs are more transparent and “flesh” out the music better.   I would also go with a very well known and popular amp amongst audiophiles.  Newer or older designs won’t make much of a difference IMO as long as it’s a Class A amp and built with high quality.  You shouldn’t need much power as I have gotten great results using a 50 watt amp on the big Maggie’s. I think my main points are,  stick with quality, choose Class A design, and research what’s extremely popular and sought after amongst audiophiles and you will be happy with your purchase.  Some amps are very detailed and others are very musical but with tweaks like cables, you will be able to adjust the sound to your liking.  Good luck in your journey, I’ve been in it for 30yrs and have settled on what I believe sounds best to me.