A 9 watts SET for the Maggies, Heavenly marriage

When I was selling my 2a3 I auditioned it for a prospective buyer on my MG 12's. It worked, but just barely - even at low volumes it just wasn't the amp for those speakers in a smallish room.

Subseqently, I heard a guy's maggies with 300b's in a , very very small room and that made him happy for quite awhile, but eventually he kept the 300b's and moved on to a large full range fostex set-up which was just a way better match(IMO).

Personally I don't think you get all the set magic without going to a much more efficient speaker. If you are a maggie guy, then a higher power amp with more grip is what brings out their best.

Different strokes of course....

I have no other choice because I fall in love with the Magnepan sound and also sleeping with the SET.

I've wanted to hear a pair of Maggies driven by one of DeHavillands 845 output tube SET amps. That seems like an combo that might have some potential charms if one isn't going to drive them to headbangers ball levels. In particular, the new DeHavialland GM70s look interesting for this experiment.

for several years, i was running my MGLR1s with the Musical Fidelity XA-200 monoblocks and they were happy. 2 years ago, I tried the Cayin 845/300B monos (27W SET) and found they worked, but to a very limited extent only: volume cannot be raised beyond 8'o clock... yet the SQ of the SET vs the brute XA-200s is much to my liking.

i kept the SETs, sold the Maggies, and settled for the Vollas... but i still missed the maggies even today.

i now have a beefier tube amp (SF Power 2) that can handle the maggies and i am on the hunt for a 1.6... my only limit is room size :-(

i, too, would be happy to go back to SETs coupled to maggies, but the high-powered ones are not only rare here on this side of the pond, they are very expensive.

i saw the Kronzillas in HK and the tubes were LARGE! i thought the 845s were big, but they seem like 6DJ8-types sitting side-by-side with the KR tubes... These Kronzillas are monsters, pretty monsters, and their prize is off-the-roof and burns my bank account... i wish...

we can dream, good buddy :-)
and until a SET-made-in-audio-heaven comes along, my quest for the 1.6QRs will have to wait...

cheers!
egay

A different perspective.I owned Maggies for years and I believe that planar speakers are like a beautiful woman,or a fine vintage wine,once you go there you can never have anything less.Having said that,I moved on to Innersound EROS 3's,simply because I wanted to audition a "Stat". Never looked back,and I still have the Innersounds,provides all the good things that a Maggie does but reproduces the full spectrum of music down to 25Hz.And it's sensitivity is 90db.The downside is the small sweetspot,12 to 15".
So if you're hooked on SET's and you're a solo listener it's something you may want to consider.