Pass X600 or VTL 450 Mono's for Magnepan

Thank you dear friends for advice. Mr. Campbel I like also idea of Mac 501, good review in magazines.
Surprised that recommend transistor over tube, but good advice I believe.
Mr. Audiobug my wife ok really, make face like camel when see speaker, but sometimes camel is better than nothing when long in desert.

jtinn, not sure where this loose a tube replace a resister thing has come form...i've heard it a couple of times. A near lightning strike wook out 2 tubes and the B+ fuses in my 185's....swapped em out and kept on ticking. I have about 5 yrs in the tubes averaging about 10-20 hrs a week and they are just now sounding real bad.

I like the sound of the pass for a ss amp but i like the tubes better.

Very Funny Mr. Punkawalla! Camel also carry heavy amplifiers with no problem :0)~

I have not heard of VTL amps taking out power resistors when tubes fail, but this was clearly the case with an ARC VT130 amp I had. This was quite a hassle on more than one time but this amp was a wonderful sonic match with my Maggie 3.3s ...unfortunately it clearly ran out of power just as the Maggies were starting to sing their magic. I found the Counterpoint NPS400 amp, 400w at 4 ohms, worked incredibly well with the Maggies. I suspect nothing out there in the $2k range can touch this amp in terms of driving Maggie 3 series speakers. It truly worked so very well with neither being foward nor overly warm. But the Wolcott Presence mono amps at approx 275w bring together all of the strengths of the ARC and Counterpoint amps. You should look into the Wolcotts as they sell for about the same price on the used market as the VTL 450.
John

I've read that many people enjoy Wolcotts with Magnepans, although I haven't personally heard. With my magnepan 1.6's, I use a Innersound esl amp (600w/4 ohms) which has never run out of steam and sounds great.