What does more power do for Magnepans?

I think it's more about control of those panels than power. I had a friend drop off his hovland sapphire for use on my maggies and it just fell flat - and that was at low moderate volumes. It wasn't a question of enough watts. My ps audio hca-2 sounded clearer, more open...better. I really wanted the tubes to sound better because I am a tube lover, but for me it wasn't happening.

Mr. Tennis, lush, thick and gooey? Not really selling me with that description.

"it's too bad you weren't at an audio meeting when i demonstrated the 1.6s with a 4 watt amp."

As I said, there is no wrong answer but, rather, what each of us like. I like low powered amps with efficient speakers but not with planars. I don't know what "thick and gooey" means when it comes to a description of sound.

For an understanding of audio output in db, and power requirement, read this:(http://www.axiomaudio.com/power.html) It would be nice if doubling the perceived sound only required doubling the power. The least I've powered Maggies with was a slightly modded Dynaco ST-70(about 17W a side in reality). Yes- They sounded nice, but realism could only be approached listening to small acoustic sets. Remember that you're driving a nominal 4ohms too, and look at your amp's output into that load before you shop for power. I'm trying to think of ANY live music I've heard in the last 48yrs that was, "lush, thick and gooey." Was it the 'Hot Fudge Sundaes'? NO-that was at Baskin-Robbins. Hmmm, let's see.......

hi narrod:

thick and gooey means severely attenuated treble and highly palpable midrange.

It's not about loudness, it's about controlling the panels. Tubes have a more difficult time doing this. Therefore, more tubes in parallel whether it's push/pull or single ended, lowers the output impedance,(plus or minus an output transformer). Dampening factor doesn't seem to quite explain it either. It's got to do with realism... With tubes, you'll simply need a ton of watts.
As you add devices to gain power, you lose delicacy, kind of a trade off.

With 3.5's I vastly preferred 200 wpc over 100 wpc when using solid state. Same series of amps, both new, just the power difference. I also performed this test with 2 different brands of amps with the same result.

The 1.6's are far easier to drive than 3's or 20's. yes, I've heard 3.5's with 35 watts, I've heard them with 4 watts, while the 35 watts was almost acceptable, it just didn't do it for me. My room is rather large for panels
though, so your results may vary.

Try your 3.5's with a borrowed 50 watt amp, see if you like it. That may help give you more perspective.

Good luck.