I have a bit of good news for you. If you can be patient, and stretch the budget a bit, find a Music Reference RM-10… 35 watt per channel tube amplifier. They are usually around $1000-$1200 used, so definitely north of your budget, but they sound absolutely incredible with Magnepans…. As long as you’re not trying to play music at 100 dBs. Your 14x14 room is helping you. A number of people will likely chime in and tell you it won’t work, but it does work. I’ve owned six different models of Magnepan speakers over the past 37 years, and I’ve tried dozens of amplifiers to drive them, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that the RM-10 I’m listening to right now is the best sound I’ve heard in my room. My room is 14x22, and I listen mostly to rock, blues, and some jazz, at an average of 80-85 dBs, measured with a sound meter, at ten feet back from the plane of the speakers (they’re about 52” out from the front wall). My speakers are MG-3.7s. I’ve been experimenting with lower powered, high-quality amplifiers with them over the last couple of years. Those who insist Maggies “need” hundreds of watts of power are either using the wrong amps, or have completely different priorities than I. By the way, I’ve used big, heavy, monstrous amps capable of outputting several hundred watts per channel with these speakers. Some have sounded very good, some not so good, but sound quality, for me, has never followed a “watts per channel” model. *Caveat: I recently purchased a pair of zero autoformers from Speltz audio to increase the 4 ohm impedance of the speakers. Roger Modjeski, designer of the RM-10, assured me, before he passed, that his amp would be up to the challenge of driving Magnepans to the level I listen, with the music I listen to, in the size room I’m in. He was correct.
