Recommendation for used Amp to power Magnepan 1.6

Re: Rotel-  Rotel amps seem to be one of those amps that people either love or can’t stand.  I personally never though they were that great,but love my Sunfire and there are plenty of people that hate Sunfire.  

Re: Aragon - Great amps that double as room heaters.  I would suspect most need the caps replaced by now, but if the cost of doing so is reasonable, the 4004 and 8008 are great with Maggies.  

I've had Magnepans for over 40 years, and currently own 1.7's and 1.6's.  Both are driven with Emotiva XPA-2's.  The 1.6's with a generation 1 version and the 1.7's with a gen 3 version..the current model. That goes for a grand brand new with a five year warrenty. It puts out 300 watts per channel at 8 ohms and 490 a channel at 4 ohm., and it sounds very nice with my 1.7's. 

I drive my 1.6’s with a 30 year old Hafler DH 220 and have no complaints, plenty of power.

I’ve owed 1-series Maggies since 1980. For a while I used to have a pair of 1.6s. Now it’s 1.7i for the front channels and 1.7 for the rear channels. Count me in with the Bryston crowd.
A few years ago I picked up two Bryston 4bst amps and have been very happy with them. A really sweet 4bst will stretch your budget by a hundred or two, but at that level you would have a high quality, 400W into 4 ohms amplifier with a few years warrenty remaining.
One other consideration, (thinking that you might like that good ol' tube sound), Bryston amps will match up better with almost any tube pre-amp (if you decide to go that way), than most other amps. Most Bryston amps are rated at 50K ohms of input impedance which puts them in a small 50K+ group that includes my old Adcom amps, McCormick amps, I believe Levinson amps, and maybe one or two more,
In my system I use a pair of reworked and improved MacIntosh C-20 preamps, one right before each Bryston amp. These two C-20s provide volume control and l-r balancing for my front and rear channels, and have been providing that sweet tube sound to my ears for almost 4 decades. Long before the term "tube buffer" came into vogue. In the C-20 instructions, MacIntosh advises against using the preamp will amps with less than a 50k impedance.
Just saying - if you ever decide to go with a tube preamp in the future, it would be good to pay some attention to how the output impedance of preamps you might consider match up with the input impedances of amps you are considering.  I like a 1 to 10 ratio, others go as high as 1 to 20.  (Thats ouput pre to input amp).
On the other hand if you stick with SS equipment, you can disregard everything I just said.  🤔

Below is the wording from my MacIntosh Manual to give you a better idea.

"The MAIN and TAPE output jacks are fed from cathode followers. The input impedance of devices connected to these outputs should be 50,000 ohms or greater, and the capacitive reactance of audio cables connecting these devices should not be less than 8,000ohms at 20,000 cycles. This is the reactance of acapacity of 1,000 mmf. Audio cable having a capacityof 25 mmf per foot may be 40 feet long; 13.5 mmf perfoot cable may be 75 feet long."

Magneplanar makes great loudspeakers. I own both a set of Magnepan 1.6 and a pair of the newer 1.7i loudspeakers.

Magnepan speakers are a great value, but what you’ve saved from your loudspeaker budget will be absorbed by your amplifier costs.

Magnepans need an amplifier producing a least a solid 100 Watts per channel into a 4 ohm load. Magnepans will also expose your amplifier’s deficiencies or colorations much more than many other loudspeakers in this price category.

I drive my Magnepan 1.6 loudspeakers with an Audio Research VT-100 Mk III stereo vacuum tube amplifier producing a reliable 100 Watts RMS per channel into a 4 ohm load. My Magnepan 1.7i loudspeaker are driven by an Audio Research 300.2 stereo solid state amplifier producing a solid 500 Watts per channel into a 4 ohm load.

100 watts of vacuum tube power drives them nicely at normal to moderately loud levels, but the 500 watt solid state power does a better job with loud rock and large symphonic works.

You’ve stated you have $1000 be spend. But that may be a bit low unless you’re willing to explore the second-hand amplifier market, and even then you’ll have to be a very savvy buyer.

If you’re willing to spend a little more and purchase new equipment the 300 Watt per channel PS Audio Stellar S300 power amplifier at $1499 is a great value.

The 300 Watt per channel Odyssey Statros Stereo Extreme for $1800 is another good choice, and has been an Absolute Sound Editor’s Choice repeatedly.

A quick eBay search found a used Audio Research VT 100 Mk III with new tubes with a Buy It Now for $1250 + $89.92 shipping from WV. (This is what I’d buy)

Wyred 4 Sound’s ST-500 Mk II Series Stereo amplifier produces 430 Watt per channel into a 4 ohm load and also gets the Absolute Sounds Editor’s Choice year after year. For $1499 it’s a bargain.
The new amplifier are probably also available second hand for less.
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