2. amps-preamps
  3. 173648-4741

30 to 50 watts seems to be all I desire

Weird, but in my small listening room (12x16) no matter the speakers used, to a T they all can be driven quite superbly with amps in the 30 to 50 watt range.  This includes the Maggie 1.7.

I had a few 200 watt amps in rotation but took them out for now because I never got past about 8:00 or at most 9:00 on the preamp, and oftentimes it was around the 7:30 mark.

So I personally don’t buy into the lower efficiency speakers needing gobs of power to sound good.  Caveat:  Listening to mainly Jazz at volumes less than 85db, normally.

Cheers, all.

 

128x128audiodwebe
secretguy
1,612 posts
 

I’ve driven Maggies with an Onkyo 45 watt amp. Sounded wonderful. I also fried a HK stereo receiver that claimed 100 watts.

noromance's avatar
noromance
9,578 posts
 

35 watt (tube monos) for me too.

jond's avatar
jond
5,699 posts
 

I haven't had more than 17 watts here in 15 years with no problems and great sound.

russ69's avatar
russ69
3,360 posts
 

My minimum is 60 solid watts per channel. That will work at my listening levels, less with more efficient speakers. I only need more when I'm trying to impress someone, not for normal listening. 

joey54
432 posts
 

Just out of curiosity, did you check to see if there was an impedance mismatch between your amp and preamp? I had a similar problem with an Audible Illusions preamp going into an Ayre V3. I could not get past 9 o'clock on the preamp without blowing myself out of the room. It was because the V3 had a 10K input impedance which was not high enough to work with most tube preamps and not because the V3 had too much power.

 

If you have already looked into this ignore me but my experience with Maggie's (2.7's only many years ago) is that they like lots of power to play well. Good Luck!

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