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Amplification Recommendations For Magnepan .7

I am new at this and I am hoping I can get some good advice.  I listened to the Magnepan and fell in love with them.  I've been gearing up to buy them over the last three weeks.  I started reading about them online and I'm seeing that good, powerful amplification is very important to get them to really perform.  At the stereo store I know they were powered by a top flight amp.  So now I have to get an amp/preamp and DAC, integrated amp with DAC or with a separate DAC. I listen to Tidal a good deal.  

The problem is that my budget is limited to around $1200 so I don't know if that can make the cut to get something that can do the speakers justice.  I'm open to buying used.  I would be grateful for any recommendations.  

amritash
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
I don't know what your budget is, but I've owned a pair of Magnepan 1.7s for over two years. Although I use a different rig at home, the unit I auditioned with (and showed off the Maggies' strengths very well) is the NAD 375BEE. It had plenty of power, but most importantly, it was smooth, musical, dynamic, and had an unexpected and involving level of detail. If you can't swing the price, you could go with the 356BEE, but of course, the more power the better. 

Without getting into serious money, the NAD BEE series is an excellent match with the Maggie .7 and 1.7s speakers.
skoczylas's avatar
skoczylas
240 posts
 
another great option is class d audio. They custom make high quality very powerful class d integrateds at a very low price. You coukd then spend the remainder on a dac. 
bassdude
488 posts
 
The Parasound Halo A21 is superb driving Maggie's... As is the "Class D Audio" brand amps (SDS-470C).
zuio's avatar
zuio
96 posts
 
Get 2 Crown xls 1500, use them as monoblocks, upgrade fuse and use good power cords, use balanced xlr source - the very best you can afford !!! 
zuio's avatar
zuio
96 posts
 
... the crown has a volume trim, you can finetune with digital volume control on your source and avoid the preamp. Usb audio is not good unless you spend $$$. Look into a logitech transporter or cambridge sm-6 network player. If you have a mac look into a thunderbolt device like universal audio apollo solo and upgrade its external power supply.
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