Is Magnepan is coming out with it's own amplifier

errr, Vandersteen.

I can speak somewhat to the two models of Vandersteen amplifiers, both of which I have heard and own the M7. They afford some design goals and objectives not available to a Swiss Army knife full range amplifier designer. The circuit itself is quite unique with just 5 parts in the signal path and no emitter resistors. The amp bias and fault, etc are 100% analog, there is 128 volt DBS built in for the provided speaker cables, HRS isolation, liquid cooling for rock solid bias, the list goes on.... but every Vandersteen dealer I know of carry other amps like: Ayre, Aesthetix, VTL, ARC, Quicksilver, MAC, .... this list goes on, so go listen and decide...

I will say my recent listen to the Kento w Vandersteen 5 high pass amps Was the absolute best Mac front end I have heard anywhere :-)

The Acoustat preamps and power amps provided excellent Sonics and value. I still have a RP2 w phono design by VanAlstine 

lovely

Back in the day, when Wendell was at Audio Research, they marketed together for a few years. We sold a lot of Mag/AR systems as they were great together--still are, by the way.

Trivia for those who do not know:

Audio Research EC-3 electronic crossover was made to work specifically with the Tympani I-C speakers and the EC-21 active and PC3 passive crossovers were made specifically for the Tympani I-D speakers.

SO, speakers as revealing as a Magnepan need the best stuff driving them. Since AR and Magnepan have been "broken up" since about 1975 or so, not surprising that they might want their own amp.

By the way, since I still listen to two pair of Tympani I-C speakers, if anyone has an EC-3 lying about gathering dust...

Cheers,

Richard

Richard, unless you absolutely MUST have a tube x/o, the little First Watt B4 is perfect for use with Tympanis (I bought one for use with my T-IVa's). It is no longer available factory built, but only as a DIY kit. Completely discrete (no opamps or IC's), high-pass and low pass filters in 25Hz increments from 25Hz to 6375Hz, a level control for either the high or low pass (user selectable).