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Integrated amp recommendation for Maggie .7's

As the title states I'm looking for an amp recommendation for my Magnepan .7's.

I'm currently using a Belles Aria Signature pre with a pair of Signature monos.

@jjss49 recently described the Belles sound thusly:

"i have owned the belles aria (twice), along with numerous hegels, ayres, some upper older musical fidelities

david belles’ aria is a nice integrated, powerful, very stoutly built, nice phono stage in it too (the remote control is downright cheap though)

sonically, i found the belles to have a little more of a brash personality - more treble energy, some sizzle, a little grain, compared to the more refined hegel and ayre sound... so it depends if you want that or your speakers benefit from a little more sizzle up top...

the ayre, hegel and top flight retro musical fidelity amps (a308, muvista etc) provide a degree of treble sophistication of even higher tier solid state amplification (ample detail and soundstaging free of attendant electronic harshness)"

This seems to jive with my own feelings as well. I've owned probably a dozen different pairs of speakers and the Belles gear has always been the common denominator. 

I'd love to keep my budget to $5k new or used. I don't think I can get an Ayre that will mate well with the Maggies at my budget. It's possible that I can get an Aesthetix Mimas used around the $5k mark. 

Hegel is a brand I have absolutely no experience with. 

Much appreciated!

128x128audionoobie
shrapnel
37 posts
 

When I auditioned my 1.7i's which I eventually bought, one of the amps I auditioned was the Hegel. It sounded very flat to me, Maggies are such beautiful sounding speakers and the Hegel just did not have it. Eventually bought Conrad-Jhonson separates and still have it, still love it.

pragone
15 posts
 

I have a 12x13 room with. 7s.  I had a Rogue Audio Sphnix which sounded good but then I upgraded to a Mod Wright KWI-200. Big step up in performance. I only occasionally feel like I miss the tube front end.  But the fullness and slam are way better with more power.  The Pharaoh may be a good mix. I may try that myself. 

jafant's avatar
jafant
19,737 posts
 

audionoobie

 

Excellent suggestions as above. If considering solid-state, Anthem or AYRE.

If considering Tubes, Aesthetix or B.A.T.

 

Happy Listening!

helomech
1,698 posts
 

Why an integrated? As a fellow .7 owner, I can assure you that a pre-owned Parasound A21 and a decent SS preamp will perform better than any <$5K integrated. I used a Topping A90D with the A21 and it was far better than Hegel. 

jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 

i for one am a big fan of hegel - as amps for maggies they are superb for delivering the current and damping factor to get the best out of the speakers -- further, the hegels fully support the magnepan sonic ethos by not editorializing on the absolutely pristine, refined, tonally accurate sound the speakers can produce, which is beyond 90+% of the dynamic speakers out there - as such, the hegels are very close to straight wire with gain (and power), do not add sizzle, bloat or grain, and do not diminish the already limited bass output of the planars

often new owners of maggies use hegels and feel ’something is missing’ -- that something, in my opinion, is classic dynamic speaker distortion the user has gotten used to hearing...

if you want extra ’sauce’ delivered into the sound, do it at the source stage - one can credibly assert that that is not the power amp’s function

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