magnepan mmgs-buy zero autoformers or stands 1st?

I had a CJ MV50 (which is an EL34 amp at about 40 watts) with those speakers. Sure, there was bass and it sounded pretty good, but then I switched to a Mark Levinson 330 something or other which I believe was about 250 watts or so into 4 ohms. No contest. The ML took control of the speakers and made them perform at a level that the tube amp only hinted at. I then added a pair of Vandersteen subs and that really sounded great.

You can delude yourself that your amp is a OK but I would suggest taking the sage advice of those who have lived with these speakers and feed them as they wish to be fed.

tvad, you are right. no mention of break-in? this is ridiculous.....from what i read these speakers have one of the longest break-in periods, very strange they don't mention it in the manual... and no, i haven't been able to try different positioning yet because of the xmas tree. i am anxious to do this....

Cooch, I'm not sure why you posted the question. Buy the autoformers (they're good), buy the stands (their great), break in the speakers for 300-500 hours (they will improve)and keep the same amp and you STILL won't be hearing the speakers at their best. This is not to say your amp isn't good. It simply doesn't have the current these speakers demand to perform at their best.

Tvad...The manual for MG1.6 does talk about break in. What is says is that the LF extension will gradually increase until it meets spec. That is exactly what happened (and I can tell because I have a spectrum analyser that shows me the frequency response). My MG1.6 started out 3dB down at about 45+ Hz, and ended up at 40Hz, which is exactly per the Maggie specs.