Magneplanar 1.7 and low power/tube amps

Thanks for the info folks. yes i can cart the LFD down to try it as its not a big unit. The AS is too big to take. If the LFD handles them the way i like it may have to do. I'd just like a set of speakers that i can pair up with the AS also as it is a very very nice amp. Maybe the Maggies are not it..

I would say that I didn't like my Maggies playing at low volumn. I think both pair liked to play large scale music in a large way. But that's just me.

We demo'd a bit of my usual listening CD's, including the stuff i really enjoy listening to and which is unfortunately poorly recorded. The volume was not too high, close to what i would play when i have free range at home in my current setup. I am going to take the LFD down there and give it a whirl to see how it stands up. In both cases these amps i have drive better than the wattage suggests but i am not expecting them to drive at high dB. The Maggie's really impressed with the soundstage and clarity. It would be great if i can get enough out of them with one of my amps.

I've MEASURED my Maggies with a DVM. Not the most accurate, but carefully watching I can catch the PEAK voltage go by. Based on that, I add 20% for meter latency and use 4.5 ohms to compute power. For my 1.6s, at mid-loud / comfortable, I've never seen more than 10vac go by, even with the +20%.

This works out to 2.2amps at 22 watts.

During normal TV watching, I've never seen more than about 6v, with the 20% fudge factor.

I'm guessing that 15 clean watts, with 3db headroom may be on the 'low' side of even minimal. I would DOUBLE my 22 watts, add another 'fudge' and say 50 watts MINIMUM for any meaningful music listening. DOUBLE again and you'd be at minimal SAFE power.

I know, I'm nuts, but my ICE amp puts out 500+ per side into 4ohms, at probably 50 or 60 volts. I'm scared to test it!

I'm told the MOSFET's on my LFD will handle a 12Amp load for transients. I'm going to take it into the shop and see how we go on the stuff i am familiar with.