Amp help for the Maggies?

Greg, just out of curiosity, what is the "bad information out there" that you reference. Perhaps the Magnepans 30 years ago were easy to drive but this is just not the case today with the Series 3. The biggest mistake I read here over and over is that people buy these speakers because of what they heard at a dealer and then drive them with an amplifier that is absolutely not suited to bring out their musical potential.

Eric,
I think you've made a good choice of speaker! (If I say so myself, as a co-Maggie owner)
I'd say definitely stretch and go for the 1.6 if you can.
Later, when budget permits, add a subwoofer - a good one- like a Vandersteen or REL to really have a fun time with the Maggies. It will make a profound difference in the listening experience with the Mags.
Regarding amp; I am limited in budget too. I went with the Outlaw 755 (5 channels at 200 wpc; buy directly from outlawaudio.com) Been very pleased with both the power and presentation. They're $1300 new, via phone or online order.
Consider biamping the speakers, which will necessitate biwring them too and using four channels of multi-channel amp. All well worth it when you hear what they do receiving that much clean power.

Jafox- perhaps it is appropriate for me to discuss amplifier power after just watching a repeat of Tim Allen's "Tool Time." Tim Allen makes fun of the American males insatiable desire for more power in every mechanical device he can get his hands on. Almost always with disatrous results.
Amplifier wattage and frequency response became vitallly importat because it made good ad copy. The Amercian consumer had already been conditioned by madison avenue to beleive power is good. More power is great. This brainwashing was alredy paid for by the auto industry. Thus it is easy to sell my product. Buy my amp because it has flat frequency reponse,lots of power and vanishingly low distrotion.
I see amp and speaker as a system within itself. If we may return to the auto anology. Car design means mating the right engine with the right suspension for the prevailing driving conditions. You wouldn't race a stock car at Monte Carlo or Formual 1 car at Daytona. Mate the wrong engine with the wrong suspension and you have a nightmare. Most of us drive the wrong car for the conditons we have to navigate. Mostly because we hae been brainwished about the need for power. You may be awre that there is a racing series where manufacturers race three cars with few modifications right off the factory assembly line. Two cars so dominated thier field that the other cars were racing for second. This casued the other car makers to file a complaint. They both had rather average horesepower.One was the twin turbo maxda rx-7 and the other was the Audi quatro. Four wheel drive gave the quatro a significant hadling advantage. The wankel engine gave the mazda a handling and speed advantage because of its' power to weight ratio. Even in cars, massive horsepower is not always the way to go especially when one is working under restrictions

Turning back to hifi. To say that the Maggies require or even benfit from massive amounts of power aprroaching a kilowatt is just wrong! It bothers me becasuie making that claim could deter others from owning a speaker of which I am a huge fan.
Now in making recomendations for the maggie with no restrictions there are a wide range of amps that will work well. I on this very Audiogn site have reccomended the Bryston 7B. Hardly an anemic amp.

This thread asks a very specific question. What amp in the $1K range should he get to drive the Maggie 1.6? A solid state amp with the kind of power being recomended is not only not necessary but is a recipe for horrible sound. The CJ premier 11a is a much better choice and can be had used for about $1550 used. Despite it's meager 70 watts it will drive a nail. And unlike the low priced high powered solid state designs, it will sound like music. Could it benefit from an upgrade to the CJ premier 140. You bet.
Remember it is not I who have thrown down the gauntlet on this issue. I have repsonded to two other threads own this subject only to be shouted down.
I recommended the cj premier 11a to another owner of maggies. Only to have others claim it was underpowered. I also suggested that the owner of a fifty watt Forte might be able to squeak by driving MG 3.6. Especially since the Forte doubles down at 4 ohms.
FYI even though my maggies are thirty years old I have kept up with all their models except the MG 20 whcih IMO exceeds the price range that makes the maggie a great deal.

An Innersound ESL amp will cost about $1000 or so and is designed to play into low impedance loads. It sounded terrific with my Maggies and was very open and defined and had plenty of power to whip them Maggies like a rag doll! Of all the amps I tried with my old 1.6s it was the only one with enough power IMO. Give it a try, you can always sell it if not to your taste...

My advice is to stretch the speaker budget and get the 3.6's. Then, comprommise the amp budget with the lowly little NAD C320 BEE. I owned this combination for some time, while at the same time owning the Innersound ESL-300. In addition, I have a Bel Canto evo4 gen 2. Frankly, the Bel Canto is my favorite amp on the 3.6's but, the C320 is my second favorite. It is actually a better match than the Innersound though not many will agree, unless they do a blind test. In any event, it is cheap and a good starting point. You can always upgrade this at a later date.

If voice and simpler music (chamber/jazz, etc) dominates your listening preferences then there is nothing wrong with the 1.6. It has a seamless coherence and soundscape projection that is excellent by any measure. It is just as good as the 3.6. Driver coherence on the 1.6 is arguably even better than the 3.6. However, the ribbon on the 3.6 exudes a transparency and liquid delicacy that is well behaved and, virtually in a class by itself. From the moment a disc starts spinning one realizes that these are no ordinary speakers. They are simply excellent.