Magnepan, How Low Can You Go...power-wise

Just hopping on here to thank you guys for the input so far - very appreciated.

To Magfan -I am going to check out the specs on that small BelCanto- thanks for the suggestion.

Thomastrouble,

In follow up please don't misunderstand my post. I am not advocating tons of power, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, and I speak from personal experience that the majority of time speakers are blown it is not because of too much power, it is because of too little or not enough to drive correctly. Most that have been in this hobby long enough will agree, speakers get blown when under powered and your finger takes over on the volume dial. Again out of personal experience I have never had issues with 'too' much power. Personally I have had 5 pairs of Magnepans and multiple floor standing and monitor speakers and have run amplifiers operating up to 750W and have NEVER had and issue. My second point is one of headroom a term thrown around on sites like this, well not being a trem freak I can say that power in my experience leads to headroom. Finally we all know that Magnepans are not quite well off in the efficiency department and thus can eat up power and really show the quality of your amplification. It has been my experience that a soild amplifier in the 150-200W range will nicely run Magnepan speakers, my taste leans a bit to the higher side as I suggested in my last post. I desired to not leave you with the feeling that you need tons of power, more that the sky is the limit with Maggies..... but quality power is an absolute must have......

Regards,

When Magnepan shows their speakers now they use Bryston Amps, usually the 28Bsst. Before that, they used the 7Bsst, I think that let's you know what kind of power they need.

Nissancrazy Thankyou. When you say 150 - 200w will run Magnepan speakers what model are you referring to? I am curious about the 3.6s. I assume that as you go up the line of Mag speakers you need more power. What kind of power is in those Bryston amps they run to show their speakers?

Thomastrouble,

Again my personal feelings here tell me that both the Bel and Sim should do the job as they are quality amplification and I am assuming that the power ratings we are discussing are 8OHMS, power output should come close to double or actually be double at 4OHMS so you should be more than safe.