Tube-amp for Magnepan?

Hi Atmasphere,

A nice list of which I have most.

To be very anal, which version of Tour de France soundtracks do you have?

I have the original and the remaster which came out a few months ago. I was shocked when they brought out a remaster. I always felt the original was as state of the art as was possible!

Suffice to say I found the remaster to be even cleaner although by a subtle margin. I think you have to play the original and the remaster side by side to really notice. A classic electro album.

A great test of a system. If you can hear the pitch modulation moving through the snare and various reverb tail automations you are doing quite well.

The heart beat on electro Kardiogramm sorts the good from the great in hifi. The tight, deep chest battering impact while keeping air around the bass frequencies of the heart beat and maintaining the panting accents which shift at different volumes and pitches...

One to try on the magnepan. It would be something to get a sense of the different dynamics playing all at the once there on planars. If a tube amp is controlling a 3.6r and showing all that...buy it.

Yes, ElectroKardiogramm has the subterranian bass that won the LP its status. I have seen this cut separate the wheat from the chaff a number of times :) BTW the 20.1 does a great job with it.

Chadeffect, I wasn't suggesting the maggies were top notch in dynamic swings (and they certainly are not comparable in that area to the Trios), only that an assertion that maggies need powerful SS amps to swing dynamics is false.

I would love to hear your Trio's...they are one of those speakers I've wanted to hear for a long time, but haven't yet crossed paths.

I am using Zu Definition 2.0 speakers now with Ralph's M60 amps. The Zu's are more dynamic than the Maggies. I'm digging the Zu's for some of that "effortlessness" that more efficient speakers exude.

Hi Germanboxers,

I understand and I do take your point about maggies vs power vs dynamics.

What I was trying to get across was that in my experience to squeeze that last bit out of them, in the end you need power. But you can drive them with any amp really.

Once you get into the 3.6r and 20.1, I think power becomes much more important if you want to push the volume.

I know we are getting off topic, but I like the Zu. They seem good value.

I heard them with the Atmasphere 2 box preamp MP1 and I think MA1 monos (may have been another power amp in the range) with EMM lab 2 box cd player. The sound was lush musical and involving.

It took a lot for me to move away from planar speakers. The Trio was the only candidate that did it for me. I found it did all that planar magic. ie nice size soundstage, naturalness, speed and so on, but with the kind of freedom,separation and clarity I could never get out of Maggies or Apogees, quads, martin Logans.

I even had extreme modifications on the maggies and Apogees which made huge improvements. But still no contest as fantastic as they sounded.

I often wondered if Magnepan could improve the sensitivity with more powerful magnets etc. In the same way Apogee did with its Synergy speaker. High sensitivity even with the advancements in amplifier technology still makes so much difference.

That effortlessness you mention I have not heard in low sensitivity. It is much better than it was with the latest amps, but still not quite. I have even found myself hearing the Avantgarde Duos which I think are 104 db/watt and finding them a bit flat and less 3D! So I am stuck. I know Goto make 118db/watt speakers, but the tweeters are $80,000...

Drop me a line sometime, you are welcome to have a listen.

I hope you dont mind me asking, but what is your audiogon name a reference to? I have an image of the car you drive, the country you live in, or the pants you wear!

lol...Chad, three strikes and you're out. My audiogon name is a reference to one of my dogs. I have an american show bred boxer and a german boxer. They're both great dogs, but its so interesting how much more developed the working drives and instincts are with our german boxer. Unfortunately, that also means she is more of a challenge to live with, but only moderately so.

Agreed on the sensitivity / "effortlessness" correlation. The Zu's are also not offensive and let me listen and forget about the equipment most of the time. I'm not aware of any significant driver compression, something many other speakers I've owned did if I got too aggressive with the volume.