McIntosh 501 or 602 for Magnepan 20.1

Gladstone: Are you bi-amping your MG20.1s? From my understanding that's one of the first major improvements you can/should do once you have even a half-decent amplifier. (Just consider the fact that Jim Winey is bi-amping his own 20.1s and recommends this wholeheartedly). One of the nice things about bi-amping the 20.1s is that the low and high require about the same power, so using identical amps is not overkill in any way.

AFAIK, getting rid of the "mediocre" passive crossover is a major improvement. I don't want to buy 2nd hand amps, so my only option would be to get 4 brand new Omegas. That's $50,000. Considering that the JC1's are $12,000 that's one heck of a difference. I doubt *I* could justify paying $38k more for the sound of the Omegas...

Peter

I rebuilt the crossover and combined the internal and external and eliminated numerous connections. My reservation about active is that the only one that might be good enough is the Pass, costs $6,000, and I still wonder if it isn't as good as my retooled crossover. Though I will try active at some point.

Innersound ESL Monoblocks. The KW ones, about 10K used. Best I have heard on 20.1's.

Okay, now time for some facts:

For all I can tell, the Parasound JC-1s are indeed "TOO MUCH" for the MG20.1. For all I can see, Magnepan's specs are completely correct. More than 500W is more than the 20.1 can take... (The JC-1 is in theory capable of putting out approx 1100 watts into Maggie's 4 ohms).

Putting Classé Omegas on the 20.1 and claiming they need, or can take, the power is insane! In practice, the MG20.1s can't take nearly 50% of the power the Omegas are capable of...

The JC-1s are already MORE than the 20.1 can handle!

There's a lot of snake oil going on here, for sure... And I believed in some of it... Duh!

Well, at least I did not fall for all that cable madness :)

Peter

Peter: have you actually *heard* the JC-1s (broken in, please!) driving the MG20.1s, either single- or bi-amped? Or is your comment about them being "too much", i.e. too powerful, pure speculation? The same goes for the Classe Omegas' power being "insane".

And a lot of people say they hear differences among cables used with them. Bunch of snake oil, I tell ya! :-)

Brian