Krell amps with Magneplanar speakers

I've heard the magnepans sound 'ok' with krell's and monster classe amps. I owned a set of 1'6's (the set jtinn heard with the wolcotts actually!), and found that solid state amps ran a distant second to tube amps with them. My little tiny, twelve year old conrad-johnson mv-50 sounded better than any solid state amp with the magnepans. Not a little, a lot!
I concur with jtinn on the wolcotts. They are head and shoulders better than any amp I've paired with the magnepans. They completely transformed the speakers from very good to world-class. The vt100 came next, but didn't have a hint of the wolcott's power.

If you can, try a Pass X series pre-amp & X250 or X350 amp.
In my opinion, they are much less forward than a lot of other solid state. On par with the Rowland Model 8....

Daniel

FYI... Jonathan Valin in TAS #124 recommended two Maggie (1.6) systems with Goldmund SR/M2 amps, that he claims Magnepan's Wendell Diller thought was the best set up he'd heard.

The tube comments are valid. I use ARC tubes in my Pre, Bryston SS for power. (2.7's) Seems to provide the best of both worlds. But then I don't have the $$$ for tube POWER.

Thanks for all your responses. From the comments it seems that tubes would mate well with the 3.6r's, unfortunately I need to stick with solid state. I'll be looking into the amps recommended by the writers, namely the Bryston, Rowland, Pass. Thanks once again.

Newton,
You owe it to yourself to include the FPB200 or 300 on your shortlist. Don't listen to the Krell Bashing Brigade. Listen to those Krell models instead, compare them to the other products that were mentioned as supposedly superior alternatives and THEN decide for yourself. I honestly doubt if any of the above have actually heard a Maggie/Krell combo like the one you proposed.

The partnership of the 3.6 with an FPB will not sound bright at all, provided you use excellent upstream components and choose your cables carefully. Capaudio was correct when he stated that the Krell will provide the current that the Maggies need in order to give proper bass performance, while its extended top end that will bring out the best of the ribbon tweeter. But a mediocre source component has nowhere to hide in this system and then sure enough the result will sound bright and awful.

Just wait until Jonathan Valin reviews the new Maggie 20.1 for TAS (which I'm sure he will do one day, being the Maggie lover that he is). My bet is that he will absolutely freak out when he hears them with the FPB650m, his current reference solid state amplifier. As a slightly scaled down version of that system I'm sure the 3.6 will sound terrific with either the FPB200 or 300.

This opinion is not based on hear say, shows or dealer demos, but on longtime personal experience with a comparible set up of Maggie 3.3's (with rebuilt crossovers) and the FPB200, using Transparent Super speaker wire.

cheers,
hans