magepan 1.6's with mac ma6500 integrated

If you room is small, the 6500 is probably fine but you may want the extra power of the 6900 otherwise. The Mc and the Krell are like apples and oranges so it will depend on your tastes as to which you will prefer. There are several happy Mc & Maggie owners on this forum.

my room is small -- 11 x 15, i do have a sub. a rel storm iii.

My friend had the 1.6's with the 6500 and went to the 6900 and difference wasn't worth the price.. the 6900 didn't have the juice. Magnepan's love lots of 4ohm watts... and they open up with more.. Later he used a 200watt a channel Rotel that really opened them up.

Am I mistaken, but didn't you answer your own question in your post?

I ran Maggie 1.7's with a MA6300 at 160wpc/4 ohms. It was okay but I felt that I was missing something.

I then moved up to a Krell 300Si Integrated at 300 wpc/4ohms. This was a big improvement. Much more detail and resolution. Better bass.

I am now running the Maggie 1.7's with a Wyred4Sound ST1000. Completely blows away the Krell. Another quantum leap in detail and resolution. The bass is much better - palpable.

Maggies need power.