My speakers are set. Magnepan Tympani IVs


A year ago I acquired a pair of restored Tympani IVs (not IVa). I have been driving them with an Adcom  GFA - 555 that I have had for decades.  The matching pre-amp died and has been replaced with a Schiit SYS Passive pre.

The primary source was CD but has transitioned to a Bluesound Node 2 running TIDAL. I will be playing the MQAs whenever possible. My musical tastes are eclectic, with a pronounced preference for female vocalists, piano and acoustic guitar. Genres include rock of the 60s, jazz, folk, world, Celtic and classical.

The Tympanis do not suffer from the lower register issues to the same degree as some of the other Magnepans, but are still prone to occasionally overwhelming highs.  New components should tend towards the warm to mitigate this issue.

It is time to upgrade the amp.  The consensus judgement of people whom I respect and whom own these speakers are that they should be bi-amped.  Options include separate amps for highs and lows and an electronic crossover (Horizontal ?) or monoblocks (Vertical ?)   

I am only into the Tympanis for $1000, but have budgeted $2000 for amplification. One thing I have come to learn is that the traditional percentages of investment don’t always apply when Magnepans are involved as they offer such a high sound quality/cost ratio.

Cables and room treatments are on the to-do list. As always, I am here to draw upon the experience of the Audiogon community.  Please share your thoughts.  If you see something for sale here, please call it out as I am having trouble sorting through the plethora of options.
kythyn
It partially prevents the front and back wave from meeting on each side and cancelling (the dipole effect)
Correct, my friend panels were actually a new interior door blanks, bought from "Doors Plus"

Cheers George
Good for you!  These are excellent speakers.  Personally, I use Tympani III speakers and have an "extra" pair that are still in the boxes that Magnepan sent them to me in after a refresh there.  I BELIEVE they were the last set of III's they refreshed.  

I still use the Hafler 500 I built in 1977 with a CL-32 pre-amp.  Not the best, but what I can afford right now.  I sold Audio Research and Magnepan in my shop when these companies were marketing their products together, and I have never heard better sound than that combo (back then, of course).

Today, Magnepan has more advanced speakers, but I agree that there is no more accurate music reproduction than Maggies regardless of the model you use.  If I had the funds, i would, of course, use Audio Research gear all the way, but restoring cars (currently a '66 'vette) and playing with "toy" trains (with engines in the $2000 range!) and playing at music on various instruments takes both time and funds, so I am just fine with what I have.

Enjoy your Maggies, and if you can get some Audio Research stuff eventually, you will enjoy them even more.

Cheers,

Richard
Oops. In rereading my comment above (06-02, 9:35pm), I see I stated "the two bass panels compromise a considerable square footage", when I of course meant to say they "comprise" such.
By 'restored' have the 'voice coils' on the membranes been checked out or replaced?
This is a speaker that tubes can drive quite effectively. A customer of ours (Kalvin Dahl, formerly of ARC) ran a set of our amps on IVs for quite some time. We found that they were quite sensitive to speaker cables, and ultimately placed the amps directly behind the speakers so that we could run very short (8") speaker cables. This really helped out the bass.
Atmasphere, the ribbon was replaced on one side. It appears that the socks have been off all the panels, so I believe they were checked thoroughly.  What amps did your customer run?

richopp,  which ARC gear specifically would you recommend?  I have read about some of the later (and more affordable) D-300 and D400 working with later Maggie’s, but haven’t found much about them with the TIVs

Georgehifi, which class D would you suggest for the bass panels?  The JC1s are about twice my budget for a pair.  Are they enough to drive these speakers or would I still need a tube amp for the midrange/highs?