Best Amp for Magnepan 1.7?

Sorry Magfan,

I meant to say that the W4S person with whom I spoke insinuated that they were considering pairing their products with Maggies to help sell their W4S products.

Your comment about running an amp within its limits is right on. My personal opinion is that there are many listeners who are used to hearing distortion and think that is good sound.

In Germany the Magnepans are distributed and often demoed with Jeff Rowland.

I have heard the 1,7 just unpacked and switched on

Jeff Rowland 312 + Corus
dCS Puccini + clock

I was shocked how good it was! ... on CDs I know perfectly well I discovered the space in which they have been recorded !! I couldn't believe my ears
more details somewhere here on this forum, just put Magnepan 1,7 in the searching engine

so for lower budget, there is no reason that Wired 4S shouldn't be a good match as Jeff Rowland's 312 is also a class D

then of course you need a top source

I have a pair of 1.7's....for what it's worth I have used a Mac 2105 and a super tricked out Musical Concepts Hafler dh-500.

Both sound excellent, the Hafler is more neutral. Neither can handle more than 30 minutes of high volume listening before shutting down. I think the weakness of my system is the Dynaco PAS 3x pre-amp.

It would seem that more power would help if the amps are shutting down after 30 minutes.

I had the same problem with a Krell S300i integrated at 300 wpc/4 ohms.

More power will open up the Maggies and give the low end a boost.

Clavil, having owned DCS equipment, as well as Jeff Rowland equipment, several Class D amps and many brands of speakers (including maggies, but not at the same time), I can confidently say that the DCS equipment was very likely a strong contributor to that set-up!

As somebody who has been pretty much across the board unimpressed with class D amps (versus my class A amps running box speakers - Wilson, Thiel, VS, Gemme, B&W, Totem and others), I can say I think they are a much better match for the maggies than everything else I have ever heard them with. But then, I am no magnepan expert, having just picked up a pair because they were so cheap.

Maybe in the next week or two I'll get around to hooking them up to a Class A amp and see the comparison. But my initial thought is that they make my class D amps sound better than they ever have before (which admittedly isn't that tough to do).