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Okay I Bought the Magnepan 3.6's

Okay, I actually purchased the Magnepan 3.6's; now it's amp research time! Temporarily running them with my 22 year old NAD 2200PE (don't laugh, it still works!)...and they sound decent in my 17 x 26 room. However as it has been said before, 'Scotty, I need MORE POWER!'...

After some feedback on the Parasound and big Macs, I have been leaning more towards one of the Pass Labs. (Good deals abound on used ones)... So, which way to go? These look very promising:

X250.5
X350.5
or even the XA60.5 (Pricey!!!)...

Thoughts and recommendations? Also, safe to run a tube preamp in front of these?
stickman451
stickman451 OP
553 posts
 
By chance I have managed to lay my hands on a loaner McIntosh 402...will try that on the new 3.6's just to get a good bearing on what a modern muscle amp (400 Watts and lots of current) can provide. Has anyone tried this Mc on their own 3.6's? What kind of results did you get?
stickman451 OP
553 posts
 
Lak,

did you do some detailed comparisons between the SX 1000's and other big $$$ muscle amps? I happen to live very close one of their distributors so most likely I could get a loaner.
lak's avatar
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lak
4,623 posts
 
Stickman451,
I used a couple of different Plinius amps and Plinius 8100 and 8150 intergraded amps, and a Krell KAV 400 XI. Those sounded good but the SX 1000 monoblocks sound great in all respects. I never compared the SX 1000 to any of the Pass Lab products which I’m sure would also sound great. I didn’t want to spend a fortune on amplification.
thesoundhouse
250 posts
 
You need a lot of power. I own a Pass Labs X350.5 and use it to drive my Apogee Duetta Sigs. The more power with Magies or any planar type speakers the better. I would be very careful with using your NAD power amp to run your new Magnepans you can damage them with not having enough power. The magnepan 3.6 are a mighty fine speaker.
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
I had the McIntosh 501's with my Maggies and I changed them out for Innersound ESL's. I thought with my Maggies the Mac's were slow and muddy in comparison to the Parasound JC-1's they replaced. The Mac's are great amps, and sound great at my buddies house with his big B & W's, but I did not like them with the Maggies.

I still think the best amps I have heard with Maggies are the very hard to find Cary CAD 500 MB's. I like them better than the Pass X350.5 that I recently borrowed, and that is high praise, because the Pass did sound very good.
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