how does current work in an amplifier?

My local Magnepan dealer demos his speakers with Mac amplifiers. I haven't really listened carefully there for many years, but I don't recall hearing any obvious issues with the pairing. Presumably, the dealer (Shelley's Stereo in Woodland Hills, Ca) doesn't either, since he's paired the brands for quite a while in his showrooms.

Marty

If I'm ever up in LaLa Land, I'll be sure to drop in. Woodland hills is a nice place.

I'm way South down the coast in SD. It was where wife and I could afford to buy when we got hitched....back in '86. I love it down here.

Martykl,

There is a Magnepan dealer in Columbus, Ohio who pairs the speakers with McIntosh as well.

The last time I was there, they had 3.6's with something like 400 watt monoblocks. Very real sounding without too much high end in the treble decay.

Another question that comes to mind when selecting an amp is Total Harmonic Distortion.

I read on another Audiogon thread about what amp for Magnepan 1.7's. One suggestion was an Emotiva Audio XPA-2.

The EPA-2 is advertised at 300wpc @ 8 ohms and 500 wpc @4 ohms - at less than $1000!?!

However the THD is listed as less than 1% compared to Mac's, for example, which are listed at less than .004% THD.

So what's up with THD? When can you hear it? How do you hear it?

Ear is most sensitive to THD at higher frequencies. I'll let the guys that know fill in the blanks. Your ear is most insensitive at very low frequencies......which is why subs can get away with 5% distortion or whatever.....which, if it happened at 1000hz, would drive you from the room.

Don't worry about specs. Their is a relationship to feedback which some persons object to. Just for example, the Japanese amps of the 70s had amazingly low #s, but were high feedback designs. Again, the knowledgable ones will be along in a minute.

As for Emotiva? You could build the identical design of amp....#1 used all premium components, matched semiconductors, huge heatsinking on outputs, heavy gauge chassis, transformers it takes a forklift to move, and other 'quality' touches. MTBF is very high. Before being mass produced the piece was 'voiced' and sounded GOOD.

#2? Built with parts from Fry's or some catalogue. Just the values called out, with no matching, or thought of other characteristics of the part.....Caps have a resistive and an inductive component, for example. Everything else was built or sourced with price in mind. Meets specs? Sure. Sounds good, too....but not quite up to #1s level. More production variance and less lifetime. Sales price point?.....A heck of a lot lower than #1.

Just my opin.