Elizabeth, you're probably going to laugh at this, but it's true.
A while back I bought a used pair of Maggie SMGa series II speakers for use in my smaller room (I had 1.6's in there previously but they overpowered the room in the treble).
I was not having great luck with amplification. For a while I used a Parasound P/LD-2000 line preamp into a VTL ST-85 amp and it sounded ok but not great. The ST-85 actually sounded quite good in triode mode but lacked power.
I tried the W4S ST-250 but that was not a great match. Then for a while I used a VTL TL-2.5 line preamp with a Quicksilver GLA 40-watt tube amp. I liked this combo quite a bit but again, ultimately it was somewhat laid back and lacked power.
The other day, just for laughs I took an Onkyo TX-SR705 surround receiver (over 100 wpc and WRAT analog amps that could be set for 4 Ohms). At first I didn't like the presentation, but as I fine tuned it and tried its Pure Audio and CD-Direct modes things began looking up. Next I put a ferrite bead on the power cord and put a weight on the metal cover to damp vibration.
I kid you not, it came to life and is sounding pretty outstanding. It throws a coherent "wall of sound" that to me is reminiscent of listening to Maggie Tympani 1D's with Audio Research electronics back in the day.
Mind you I'm not saying the VTL/Onkyo combo can't be beat, but I am saying it's a lot of fun and probably the best sounding (or most synergistic) amplification chain I've used with the little Maggies in this room so far. So I guess I'm going backwards in order to move forward.
