Thanks for your input Marc. I would have loved to have heard the Mani 2/CJ combo. I bet it was out of this world. I’ve been meaning to update my thread so you have given me the incentive to post again.
Since my last post I ended up buying a used pair of Mani’s here on A’gon. I’ve had them now for about 3 weeks and I’ve been listening to them pretty much non-stop ever since. First let me say that they are every bit as wonderful as I remembered them and just fill the room with beautiful music. I would also say that for my room, my preferred volume levels, and my types of music (jazz, new age, and some rock) the Plinius 9100 drives them exceptionally well and to exceptionally loud levels (at least to my ears). But as you may have gathered from my previous posts I was just itching for an excuse to buy a new amp. So for the first week that I had them, I pretty much schlepped them all over town auditioning amps. Upon the advice of a fellow Audiogoner (thanks again Tumbler) I was particularly interested in hearing the Mani’s paired with tube gear. I auditioned them with Mac, both SS and tube, ARC both SS and tube, Plinius 9200 and separates, Music Reference, and Musical Fidelity. What I found was that the Mani’s sound just wonderful with tube gear, which seems to reinforces Marc’s comments about the CJ gear (I’m assuming the amps were tube as well). Since this is my first exposure to tubes, I must also say that I was somewhat taken back by just how wonderful they sounded with “small” tube amps given what I had always heard regarding the mega watts you need to drive these puppies. What I’m here to tell you, at least in my opinion, is that you don’t need a lot of power to do justice to the Mani’s.
Well what did I end up with you ask. Well before you start laughing so loud you can’t finish reading my post please bear with me a little longer. I ended up with tubes as you could have guessed. But what may be hard to grasp is that I ended up buying the Music Reference RM-10 MKII. It's just a little bitty amp, a mere 14 lbs. and puts out 35 watts per side (bridgeable to 70w). But it’s just an engaging little amp, very musical, warm, involving, dynamic but delicate, with a huge sound stage, all the buzz words! Does it really have enough power to run the Man’s? Well in my case I think I does, but the verdict is still out. Worst case, I'll buy another one and bridge them. I might also add that the price of these amps is under $2k new. No, not cheap, but compared to some of the other stuff I listened to it’s a bargain. I might also add that I picked up a used Audio Research SP16L here on A’gon to mate up with the RM-10, which really helps the sound stage, imaging and bass, yes I said bass, which is really quite amazing when you think about that fact that it’s only 35 watts driving the Mani’s. I think it’s also a very good match with Music Reference. And yes its tube bass, which I’ve also come to find that I prefer to SS bass. And again I listened to some BIG SS amps.
So what’s the moral of the story? I guess there are really two points that I’m trying to make here: (1) IMO you don’t need mega watts to drive the Mani’s to reasonably loud levels; and (2) if you own a pair of Mani’s you really owe it to yourself to listen to them with some quality tube gear. You might just be amazed!
