Pass or ARC Integrated for Maggie 1.7's

I would go with Pass as tubes just aren't the same animal when asked for gobs of current. You might want to check out Magtech amps to see if he has an integrated in the works. That is Sanders Sound Systems. The guy has been working on amps specifically for planars for years and now has this amp for magneplanars. For the sake of arguement I will say ARC is the most SS sounding tube gear I have ever heard.

Just to correct an earlier post, the ARC DSi200 is their newest switching amp in integrated form, it is not a tube unit. The only review I have found so far likes it very much. I'm not sure how much difference in "loudness" you will find between the DSi200 and the Pass, since the DSi puts out 200 watts into 8 ohms, and 300 watts into a 4 ohm load like the 1.7s, which I believe is the same as the Pass amp. For what its worth, I run an ARC 150.2 into my 1.6s, and it sounds good to me (and the 150.2 also puts out 300 watts into a 4 ohm load).

I have run my 1.6's with threshold 4000,luxman R117, and both were fine with a bit more headroom with the threshold. You might want to try an innersound esl 300 mark2. I liked adding a tube pre amp (lector zoe)as the tubes gave a proper timbre to horns etc. that I could not get going all SS.