Amp help for the Maggies?

Within your Budget, an Aragon amp would be the ticket. I've heard many Maggie setups, and bang-for-buck-wise, they are tough to beat.
FWIW, agree with much of what Gregadd said about folks being too focused on power ratings, but when it comes to current production Maggies, the current and power both matter a lot. As much a I love tube amps, this is the last place I'd recommend them to someone on a budget! Cheers,
Spencer

NO, NO, NO...you are ALL wrong!!! (just kidding :) ) let me chime in as having owned SMG "A"'s 1.5, 1.6 ,2.7's and 3.3's( formerly Jafox's own beloved 3.3's!!) As many of you may know, I have indeed left the Maggie camp( for now anyway) and here's why. Yes, I agree with both camps to some degree. Indeed Maggies will sound good with lower power amps, especially triode tubes as long as you dont ask the amp to do more than is expected.Please dont waste your time with low power designs or most SS amps in the 100W range, and try to get the BEST sound out of them, no matter what front end stuff you have. I also have used Hi power SS amps in the 300W range with decent headroom that makes them come alive, but at the expense of revealing the short commings of the upstream components and the amp itself. The Maggie 3 series are that good at letting you know where your problems are. I really think that if your going to run Maggies full range and expect to have a world class speaker capable of high resolution, detail, stunning dynamics and play real world music, you better have not just power and current from an amp...but the BEST amp to do the job AND sound good doing it wheather it be tube OR SS. The likes of the Wolcotts, ARC Ref 600, VTL 450's, Plinius SA 250's, new McIntosh 6 chassis monoblocks,CAT JL3 Sigs Monoblocks would be what Id want for my next pair of Maggies. OR... I could be satisfied returning to my 1.6QR's and Quicksilver 60's, place them 12-15 feet apart and listen in the near field and low to moderate volume. For sweet sound, imaging and depth, especially vocals, it didn't get much better than this! Perspective is the key and knowing what sound your trying to achieve, and how you'll drive them makes all the difference...BTW...FWIW, I will never forget how good my lowly pair of SMG A's sounded with vocals and light jazz..In some respects, the best Maggie of all.

Kehut- if your running in the class of those amps you don't need any advice from me. I'll get folks into the maggie camp by showing them they are one of the easiest speakers to drive. Whats' that phrase, "easy to drive difficult to master." You guys can take 'em from there.

I have had approx. 15 different amps on my old 3.6's in less then a two year time period. From that experience and all of the other's I have come to know in the maggie community over the past few years really seem to agree on one thing, the more power the better. Yes you can achieve high level's with low power(I never tried anything lower then 60 watts) but the soundstage shrinks, dynamics are virtually non-existant and bass suffers dramatical- both in quality and quantity. If you don't listen to "complex" music, low wattage MAY work, but your limiting your potential right from the start. The factory uses 7B-ST's last I knew(usually bi-amping), so there just MAY be something to needing a bit of power on newer magnepans to play a wide variety of music.

Gregadd- On the 19th of this month you said this and now THREE days later your engaging in the very thing you found fruitless then- what gives? If you feel low power is the ticket that's great, I am really happy for you, but I have tried more amps then most on these speakers and EVERYTIME high power allowed me to get closer to the music then there lower power counterparts. This is one of the reason's I decided to move on from my beloved maggies, wanted more amplification choices. So you have your experiences and I have mine, I have NO desire in investing any time in changing your mind, but please understand your not going to change my mind either- I trust my ears.

tireguy- "...but the soundstage shrinks, dynamics are virtually non-existant and bass suffers dramatical- both in quality and quantity. If you don't listen to "complex" music, low wattage MAY work, but your limiting your potential right from the start The factory uses 7B-ST's..."

It's clear I'm not going to change your mind which is why I wrote the anecdote of the "housewives and the recipes" and abandoned that thread. It just seems that the misinformation keeps growing like some mutant desase.

Pay attention. I recomended the 7B as an ideal amp for MG. 3.6 which I repeated in this thread. In the threads where I approved what you call "low power" it was in reponse to parameters set by someone else. Last I checked $1000.00 will not get you a quad of Bryston 7Bs'. On the other hand someone was thinking about 1.6 or 3.6 but was wedded to the Forte 50 watt which I thought was borderline but they might get buy since it doulbed down at 4ohms. They last one was the guy was already considering a premier 11a for 1.6 I think and I told him it was working perfectly for me. ( I don't have a 1.6 but likened that speaker to be the current model closest to what I have. I have no interest in having a system with shrunken soundsatge, non-existant dynamics or severely restricted bass. Nor would I reccomend it to anyone else without severely qualifying my reccomendation.
As for power look at this thread. I provided a link regarding the need for 3db of headroom. You'll see that it takes quite a bit of power to accomplish that.
Just to let you know my point of reference I heard the 3.6 at Gifted Listener Audio in Crewe, Virginia when I was considering bying it. I listened to it with both the 7b and the vac 70/70. To be honest I prefereed the Bryston but the vac acquitted itself quite well. The vac was quite a bit more expensive than the cj and the bryston.

I tried to exit this thread gracefully.

I say it again those who are neither intereted in or can't afford hgih quality mega watts, fear not. You can swim in the shallow end of the magnepan pool and enjoy yourself quite well. When you get the money you can if you are so inclined move into the deep end. After you reach a certain depth however you are just kidding yourself.

I think I have said all I have to say on this issue. However I will continue to respond to any misinformation on this subject. The potential purchaser can make his/her own choice.