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Amp help for the Maggies?

Well I have settled on a pair of speakers. I went to audition a pair of maggies and was blown away. I have never heard something so musical and transparent. The dealer does not have that much selection apart from the maggies, but just for comparison sake I listened to a comparably priced B&W speakers and was almost offended. So the choice is made, I am getting maggies (MG12 or 1.6).

I have a source (AH, Njoe Tjoeb 4000), but still need to match an amp and pre-amp with these. I am thinking about doing a DIY preamp. Most likely a Modified Grounded Grid or a Modified Foreplay design. I am not sure what to do and would welcome any suggestions. My real problem is I need an amp that can deal with the power hungry 4ohm load of the maggies. My budget is about $1000 and would like to buy used. I am considering the McCormack .5 Rev A of DNA 125 but I am nervous about having that little solid state power. If anybody has any ideas please help me out. I know there are some diehard Maggie fans, let me know what you think, I have very little to audition here in Memphis TN.

Thanks
Eric Baer
iamcrazy111
tireguy
1,964 posts
 
First try a search this has been covered in the past and you may find some valueable information.

If you could stretch your budget just a bit it would open a lot of other options. For just a little bit more the Bryston 4b-st would work well and for a little bit more the Innersound ESL amp would be my suggestions. The more clean power the better with magnepans.
gregadd
574 posts
 
too bad there is so much bad information out there. I bought my maggies almost 30 years ago. i bought them precisley because they were so easy to drive. For a slice of heaven try the cj premier 11a. a used pv12al if you don't need phono a pv 12a if you do. If you are addicted to power try to find a NYAL moscode 300/600. I saw one for sale on audiogn.
greg
55dok
162 posts
 
If you want a very inexpensive solution get a used luxman R-117 receiver that drives the 1.6 QRs to concert levels and has a CD bypass switch to run the speakers directly from your CD player into the Amp. The Nakamichi stasis SR 3A receiver will also drive the maggies well enough for jazz and chambermusic and sounds a bit sweeter than the luxman but runs out of gas on loud symphonic concert music. The luxman will run approx $275-325 (with remote) and the Nakamichi stasis (no remote) $100-200 on Ebay. At those prices you can't go wrong and you will have to spend 5-10 times as much to get similar sound with new equipment. I would also get superflatline shotgun cables from nordost so you can remove the metal jumpers from the 1.6 QRs high and low rear inputs.
flg2001's avatar
flg2001
543 posts
 
I had 1.6qs some years back driven by a Rowland 2 amp, I think a Rowland 1 will do the job as well and is within your budget.

Check out the many modifications available for the Maggies, things such as Autoformers, removing some panel covering, etc.. they do work.

Fernando
slv
87 posts
 
I have Maggie 1.6QR's and drive them with an Aragon 8008BB (pre-Klipsch design). I personally love this amp, and it will output 400W into 4 ohms with tons of current. They usually sell for around $1200 used - there's one currently for sale on this site (I'm not associated with this sale in any way). :o)
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