Tube Amps from China

The Dyna ST70 may have not enough power for (any) Maggies. I had one with the Van Alstine mod and, IMO, was way underpowered for the 1.6/QR that I once had.

If you like the tubey sound, go for a hybrid or a FET input / power bi-polar transistor end based solid state amp. Maybe a CJ MF2250A or MF2500 that goes a bit above a grand. I second the vote for McCormack.

For more efficient speakers, I can recommend the Grant Fidelity that I heard or the Eastern Electric 8W (with NOS tubes) that I own which replaced the Krell KAV 250a to drive a pair of Vandy 2 Ce in my study; YMMV. I have the EE preamp and tube DAC as well, very good sound and built quality in a nice form factor.

Magnepans love power...

Back when I had 1.6QRs, I hooked up a "50" (more like 25-30!) watt EL34 Yaqin MC-10T amplifier. It sounded pretty good - provided you didn't listen at loud levels or any music with deep bass.

Perhaps a Ming Da MD75 would work...

but as someone already said, look in the used market first - VTL, Conrad Johnson, even Audio Research come along under $1k once in awhile.

Other option: get a good SS amp and run a tube preamp with it?

I thanks for the replies , right now I have Adcom 5802 to power my speakers with a Harmon Kardon receiver as a pre amp. I wanted to try a tube amp to get a better sound .

I also have a Sony 55es I might use as the preamp too.

Why don't you try a tubed pre-amp? I use a Conrad Johnson PV3 with a solid-state amp and it sounds wonderful!

Alphaattitude06,

Better sound is not just a matter of tube vs. solid state. More important is matching your amp and speakers. IMO, due to the higher cost per watt of tube amplification and the Maggies well-documented need for power you will have a much better range of options if you look in the solid state arena.

It isn't that you can't run tubes with Maggies, it is just that the tube wattage needed for Maggies will cost more than your stated budget.

It is all about synergy, especially between amp and speaker.

For example, when I had less efficient speakers (SP Tech Minis) that were known for liking power, a Butler hybrid amp was a great solution for me. When I moved to more efficient speakers (Von Schweikert VR-4s) I got a Rogue tube amp. Driectly comparing the amp & speaker combos, the hybrid amp sounded better with the SP Techs, while the Rogue was preferable with the VR-4s. The other combos lacked something. FWIW