Magneplanar 3.6R + Pass Aleph Amps Mate ?

IMO, one needs a LOT of good, clean sounding power for the 3.6. I'm not familiar with the Aleph 5. I'm using an InnerSound ESL amp that warps out at 600WPC into 4 ohms. That gives me a clean 100db in-room.

I've owned an Aleph 5, and I have previously owned a
pair of Magnepan MG-IIIa and currently have Magnepan
1.6QR's.

In my opinion, an Aleph 5 is inadequate power for a
pair of 3.6R. I say this not having owned a pair, but
knowing the power requirements of Maggies. I just
changed from a Mark Levinson 27.5 amp (200 W/Chan @
4 ohms) to a Levinson 335 (500 W/Chan @ 4 Ohms). Though
the 27.5 was very smooth, detailed and had an excellent
soundstage, the 335 gave an added dimension to the
dynamics. The 3.6R would be even more power-hungry than
my 1.6QR. I would suggest the Aleph 5 for POSSIBLY the
upper end in a biamped configuration.

I once owned the Pass Aleph 2's in combination with 3.6R's
They were not a good combo
Not enough balls from the Pass to properly drive the Maggies

I wouldn't do it. I think you will be vastly underpowered.

I had the 100w 2's with the 1.6's and they really didn't light up at all. Very clean, but the power really wasn't there. In fact I had never heard such a mismatch with the wonderful aleph's and magnepans. The aleph's tend to sing with highly detailed, ultra clean speakers like audio physic. Magnepans tend to work well with high power tube amps. I didn't like my 1.6's with my mccormack amp either.

I did hear the 3.6's sound absolutely wonderful with ARC solid state at this year's CES. Those would be my number one consideration. They had it set up in a five channel arrangement.

Bryston sounds really good with the maggies, the Pass has not enough gass

I owned 3.5Rs before I went up to 20Rs and had a chance to try out several power amps. I don't know what your budget is, but here goes.

On the cheap, Bryston does a pretty good job. I had a 4B ST, initially. Good low end control, decent midrange and ok top end. I could and did pop tweeter fuses with this amp.

Next up was a weekend shootout between a Krell FPB300 and a Levinson 335. Neither of those were cheap at the time, but the comparison was interesting. The 335 exhibited all of the customary Levinson virtues - smooth, powerful, nice coherency. And uninvolving. The music just wasn't grabbing us as we listened to the 335. Switching to the Krell changed all of that. That amp did a much better job of delivering the musical experience. Everything we listened t owas more involving and compelling. Iron-fisted bass control. Detailed mids and a smooth clean top end. The Krell had a 'grab factor' that the Levinson jsut didn't have.

I subsequently bought one of the few Krell KSA 250S that were made. Perhaps it was pride of ownership, but it did seem to sound more musical than the FPB 300.

Used Krells would be a good bet, budget allowing.

The best amp I ever heard was the Pass Labs X350 that I now use to run the MG20Rs. If your budget allows and you can find one of these bad boys used, go for it. You won't be sorry and it'll do wonders for your 3.6Rs.

The thing to have in mind is that the 3.6Rs are wel lworth the price of high-quality amplification. And they'll let you hear each and every improvement that you make - and each and every shortcoming of everything else in the system. Synergy is everything with these speakers. Interconenects and speaker cables will make or break the overall sound no matter what amp/preamp combo you're using. But get it all right, and you've got musical bliss.

As a biamper of 3.6 for over 2.5 years, I'd suggest you keep the Aleph for the "top" (as Jvogt suggests)in a biamp mode (still may not be enough power though). Then buy a used Bryston 4B for the bottom, and biamp the 3.6's with an active crossover (Marchand or Bryston). Dump the factory external xover. Transparency and dynamics will improve dramatically. (I say this because I think the discontinued Aleph series is very special... more musical than PassX series, IMO.)

Thanks everyone for your opinions, one thing I got out of this is the need for power which I am struggling with as am not particularily interested to get into the amp game. Will look toward a very sensitive speaker instead.

Thanks and enjoy the music

I'm curious as to what "very sensitive speaker" you would opt for. It would pretty much have to be a box or a horn, or both. Keep us posted. I'd love to have a more sensitive speaker that sounded like 3.6s.