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Solid state amp recommendations for Maggies?

I am looking for another amp to drive my magnepan LRS, looking for a solid state amp to deliver more detail than my current tube amp, but don't want to give up (much) of the soundstage and depth.

I have a small listening room with a near field set up, so I don't need a ton of power for ear piercing volume. I listen mostly to acoustic rock, acoustic jazz and female vocalists.  I want more the guitar on Keith don't go and hotel canifornia intro from hell freezes over to  to sound... better...

at the risk of sounding stupid, I am driving these $650 speakers with many thousands of dollars of electronics.  The amp is a Primaluna HP (80wpc using 4 EL34s per channel), CJ ET7 preamp, PS Audio Direct stream DAC and a Naim digital source. All with MG audio silver interconnects and speaker wire. Even the interconnects cost more than the LRS.  

I am very happy with my current set up, but would like to grab another amp to a change of pace.

My budget is $5-8K, used or new.  My room is such that mono blocks set up well, but that is not necessary. 

thoughts/recommendations?

 

 

meiatflask
rankaudio
154 posts
 

I used the Parasound A23 Halo with my 1.7 Maggie’s And was blown away at how much power it had. More than enough power on tap. Bass sounded super clean, tight and controlled. I used an Aretha tube preamp. The newer A23+ has even more power than older one I used. (Revised post). Site still has no feature to edit. 

jjss49's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
jjss49
6,612 posts
 

there are many many solid state amps that can deliver strong, ample current into low impedance loads - which is what is needed to drive maggies to appreciable volumes

maggies are also quite revealing so the input signal and power needs to be very pure, or else the maggies (like many very transparent speakers) will play the bad sound for you to hear, not smooth it over

so, the key is to get a powerful well built high current delivery amp (in all likelihood solid state) that sounds super clean super pure - there are still many out there that meet both criteria, but they are fairly expensive

milby1's avatar
milby1
24 posts
 

I would take a look into Audionet,some of best solid state amps available

fiesta75
1,378 posts
 

McIntosh, the 600 watt per channel beast. I don’t remember the model number, but @g_nakamoto has one. MC2600 - killer!

jenney
21 posts
 

Save your $$$  check out Ava HiFi in Minnesota  The Maggies need good power and Frank Van Alstine is located close to the Magnepan factory his gear will make those panels sing and it will not ruin your pocket book

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