Magnepan Owners - Need Your Thoughts Please

In audio, as in life, there is no free lunch. Great high sensitivity speakers that can use nice flea powered amps, many of which are very reasonably priced, are usually very expensive. To the other extreme, there are Magnepan speakers, which although univerally praised for thier performance and price point, really don't sound anywhere near their best until you put some pricey high powered amps with them.

The digital/ice amps have mitigated that somewhat, and do sound really good in most instances, but with the exception of the BelCanto's and Wyred4Sound amps, even digital (Sanders Sound, Spectron) amps have gotten expensive at anywhere near reference levels. Also, really good Pass, Bryston, Cary and Parasound (sort of reasonalbe, used) sound the best with Maggies and they are not cheap at all.

Glad for your success w/Cardas setup.

I have been a Mag user for close to 30 years......bought some MG-1s from a friend and have never looked back. As it turns out, I've also had 'em in rooms from large closet to great hall with many stops between.
Amp choice? Match it to your max SPL, of course.
Magnepan, I'm told, shows with Bryston. The 4BSST is considered a good match as are any of the larger monos.
I use an ICE based solution to great effect. I have a PSAudio GCC250 of 500x2 into the panels nominal 4 ohms, or so. People seem happy with BelCanto 'd' amps as well. Either the over-the-top 1000 watt monoblocs or for more modest systems, there small integrated. Spectron has been mentioned, as well, and is an all original design from someone verging on genius.
If the sound is a little 'too bright', as it was for me, I toed them out a little more so they 'crossed' in back of me. That, and moving them as close together as possible, given they bracket a large TV helped imaging. The supplied attenuator resistor should be discarded and replaced with a good wirewound, if you REALLY gotta have it.

If you go to a sub, and don't play loudly, past the LF limits of the speaker, cross the sub over as low as possible and run the Maggies full-range.

Now, and finally, Magnepan is a DIY DREAM. Crossovers? aftermarket and homebrew all over the place.
Stands / Stiffeners? Yep. All have there fan base and advocates.
Turn the panels around? Sure! some people like the pole pieces facing them, not the mylar.
ReFrame? This is a beautiful solution to the 'monolith' look some find offensive. WAF is a factor, here. There are many beautiful and exotic woods which will make them one-off looking and enhance the sound.
At least one of the reframe persons also does external crossovers of different design.

Above all, have fun. links upon request.

i own 1.6s . i am using a vtl deluxe 120. i probably don't listen as loud as you do. i average 70 to 80 db. i have no problem using the triode mode--about 45 watts.

if you want to listen at spls approaching 90 db, consider that at times you will be listening at levels which exceed 90 db. you might consider a more powerful amp.

i know, a lot of owners believe a high wattage ss amp is appropriate. i have heard them driven by a 500 watt ice power amp , as well as a 300 class a amp. since dynamics are unimportant to me, while timbre is most salient, i appreciated the ss amps at frequencies of 150 hz or less but did not like what i heard at frequencies exceeding 1000 hz.

This is from the Magnepan website:

"We are asked this question every day. But, individual tastes vary so greatly that a definitive answer is impossible. We are using a 35 watt receiver in the lobby to our factory. Therefore, can we honestly say that 35 watts is all you need? For each increase of 3 db, the power must be doubled. So, 70 watts, 140 watts, 280 watts, etc. will progressively result in 3 db increases over the receiver we are using in our lobby. Personal tastes are "all over the map". We hear of customers that are perfectly happy with 25 watts and others using 1000 watts."

I have a pair of MG 12s' that I first used with a Acurus A250 solid state amp, which was 350 wpc at 4ohms. Then I switched to a inexpensive Yaqin MC-100B, which sounded WAY better than the Acurus amp, and that was only 30 wpc in triode mode. Go figure.

I'm now using Cary Slam 100 monoblocks, which are 90wpc in triode mode, and I can't imagine that these speakers could be powered any better. They're dynamic and solid sounding, while accurately presenting sounds that I'm used to hearing live.

As far as bass, I'm a professional bassist, and I have never felt the need for more bass out of these. That said, I completely rebuilt the crossovers according to a tutorial I found online, and now these things are CRAZY sounding. The bass is even more defined, and the detail and depth are amazing. I've also made stands for them that hold them more straight up and down.

I'm done speaker shopping!

As far as placement, I have kids, so I store them out of the way and pull them out when it's time to listen (try doing that with Wilsons :-) I drop them about 4 feet in front of me, in the center of the room, which pretty much takes any room interference out of the equation.

If you like the sound of your VTL's, then I'll bet that you'll like them with the Maggies.

Magenepans like lots of high current power if you want them to play at orchestral levels. Good amps for the 1.6 models would be innersound esl 300, coda, classe 201 etc. The higher powered tube ampes will cost much much more (VTL 450,etc) and are proboably not worth the expense for the smaller and mid sized maggies. You can also try an integrated classe CAP 151 for the 12's and even for the 1.6's or my favorite budget solution; a vintage luxman R117.