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Help. A box beats my Maggie

Got a Magneplanar 1.6QR over a year ago and it immediately blew my Cabasse Farella away. Was using a NAD C370 then with Marantz CD17m2ki. Without a second thought, I immediately place the Farella at the local dealer for resale. Later on, replaced the C370 with a Plinius 8200mk1 and it gave a great improvement in performance from the Maggie except it is a tad underpowered sometimes in my big room. C370 has more power.

Last week, frustrated that the dealer cannot sell off my Farella, I decided to take it back and hook it up to my Plinius 8200mk1 and in a nutshell, my jaws dropped. Literally! If there is a match made in heaven, this is it. The Farella is LIGHTNING fast, with FRIGHTENING dynamic. The soundstage is as wide as my Maggie and things just opened up more. More details. It retains the nice tone of the Plinius to boots. After having the Maggie, I am hooked on it’s box-less sound. Guess what, the Farella has very little box coloration and I can listen to them for hours. For the record, I cannot stand the majority of box speaker because of coloration. I like the Plinius+Farella so much that I have temporary put my Maggie aside and here comes my reason for writing all these.

I believe the 1.6QR are capable of much more then what I am able to get out of it with the Plinius. I would like to know what amplifiers are there that will improves on the Plinius without breaking the bank (I may be willing to spend 2x more). I realize some people will go for power at the expense of quality. I am not prepared to do that. Getting a Plinius SA10* power amp seems to be the logical move but unfortunately, I cannot audition them here. I would like to know whether the SA10* can give me almost twice the performance of the 8200mk1 because if it doesn’t, then I am afraid I will prefer to play with the Farella instead of the Maggie for the time being. IMHO, this is simply a case of a more perfect synergy matching of Farella then the Maggie. Nothing more.

I read there is a fellow going by the moniker Cpdunn99 who mentioned a marriage made in heaven of his Cabasse speaker and Plinius 8200. If you are reading this, I would love to hear your cabling/cord selection. Presently, I find that most things with silver seem to be a poor match and copper seems to be the way to go.
konghh
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,306 posts
 
This post is further proof that system matching plays a big role.

I used to own Plinius 8200 MKII integrated with my Maggies and liked the combo but felt it was under powered and eventually I sold the Maggies because I could not afford an amp that I liked enough. The Plinius SA 100 MKIII was my favorite match and was pretty darn good but still underpowered (but still more OOMPH than the 8200) so I decided to go with tubes and box speakers instead. The last I heard from Cpdunn99 he had Acoustic Zen cables, at least in the IC I believe.
philefreak
423 posts
 
It just goes to show that something different is not always better, just different. Thus, the reason for A-gon and all this gear for sale. It's all about synergy people!
jafox
1,470 posts
 
I think the two Phil* posts above bring some valid points here. And yes the Maggies have dynamic constraints compared to other systems but we already know this. Magnepans are owned because of their other qualities that far exceed much of the competition. This includes a very coherent tonality, incredible 3-dimensional presentation and an incredibly extended top end. Throwing midfi electronics at them is NEVER going to bring out these qualities. Just because they are affordable does not mean they will work well with electronics in the same price range. In the Magnepan world, this is simply how it is. And by the way, drive them with an incredibly linear, not necessarily super mega powered amp, and they will knock your socks off!
John
vincedog3
8 posts
 
I agree with allot of the posts here. System matching is vital to getting your music out there best. Maggies are a great speaker, but definately you have to be careful with amp matching. I have a small listening area, I use a meaty sounding tube integrated with my maggies. Blows me away how big the sound is. I had other Solid state and while nice, just missed giving the fullness and the richness of the music and what the maggies can do. I heard some folks say Simaudio amps are good with maggies too.
konghh OP
12 posts
 
Hi Phil, I too felt that the 8200mk1 is a tad underpowered and it is very obvious when playing some CD that tends to have lower signal. Before I bought the 8200, I have surfed and asked and even read a Stereophile reviews saying that it has sufficient power. Guess my standard as to what constitute "enough" is higher (my larger then average rooms doesn't helps) and am glad that I am not the only one complaining of lack of power issue. Now I am not saying the Plinius isn't good. The sound quality is in fact extremely good and I have compared it to Krell 400xi and I can say that on most speakers I heard it with, I prefers the older Plinius. But if Phil said the SA100 is also underpowered, I think I might have to approach my bank manager :(

And yes, I know very well the strenght of the panel. I believe if there is more power (without sacrifying quality), I would be a very very happy person. Hence my initial question.

Using Plinius house sound as reference, can anybody tell me how does a Innersound ESL 300 sounded like? On paper, it seems to be have lots of power for panel with low cost. FYI, I value the excellent tonal balance and midrange texture of the Plinius the most. Thanks in advance.
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