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Best Amp with Magnepan 3.6's

Greetings - I currently own a pair of Magnepan 3.6's and am looking for any suggestions on an amp that would help me get the volume/sound I am missing.
My current systems is as follows:
Magnepan 3.6's
Rotel 1057 preamp
Rotel 1080 (200x2) amp
NAD 525BEE CD player
JL audio F110 sub
Transparent interconnects, and cables
As you can imagine I am not getting near the volume I would expect out of these 3.6's because of the limited power of my Rotel amp. I have researched different amplifiers and have it narrowed down to 2 (although I'm still open to suggestions). I've been looking into a Bryston 4B SST or a McIntosh MC402.
I would greatly appreciate any input or suggestions you may have. Thanks in advance.
gbowman11
gbowman11 OP
3 posts
 
Thanks Markwatkiss - I've also been looking at the McIntosh c220 preamp - any thoughts?
markwatkiss
508 posts
 
Yes I have thoughts,lets take this off line.Flip me a pm and I'll pass on some particulars.
dne
141 posts
 
Pass Labs. Some friends and I have had several amps with Maggie 3.6's (and before that, 1.5's and 1.6's). The Pass Labs, in no special order, were the X150.5, X250.5 and X350.5. All 3 were excellent in bested the others in every category, in our opinions.

I'm using the X150.5 now and it has no problem in driving the 3.6's very easily (HiFi News mag. tested the X150.5 and found it clipped at 280wpc @8ohms!!! and 380wpc @4ohms).

The other amps tried were Krell KSA 50, Classe 201 and 401, Plinius (250wpc - don't recall the model #), Hafler 9501, Parasound (200 wpc - don't recall the model #). The Plinius was second best after the Pass Labs amps.
kehut's avatar
kehut
668 posts
 
Bryston is all you need. Im with Markwatkiss here. Even the 4BST is a nice combo with a good tube pre amp.
yagimax
21 posts
 
I Tried the Bryston 4bsst at home for a weekend with my 3.6r's. The sound was much more powerful sounding as expected compared to my old 100w PSE amp. However the topend still sounded somewhat bright.

I've since then replaced the PSE with a Classe CA400 with the power doubling into 4 ohms at 800w. The going price is about 2k if you can find one.
The CA400 has a real sweet topend and midrange needed for my room, which has also been acoustically treated.
It also sounds as though I've added a sub with increased bass response.

If you stay with Bryston look into the 14b or 7b series.
The Cary CAD500mb is also a great choice as Cary Audio will build one for you when I last called them in August.

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