solid state vs tubes

mrtennis older jeff roland models 6,8t or 9t might work for you;my model 6 monoblocks perform quite well on my soundlab m2's;the original owner of the m2's was driving them with model 9t monoblocks.It might be the sound you are striving for.

The difference between 'old' Maggies and 'new' is the difference between pole piece forward and mylar forward.
The old way, IMO was better. My original MG-1s had a character and feel about them not equaled by my 1.6s, until I did a rotate-in-place.

Anyone having 'brightness' or treble problems with Magnepan should try a simple rotate in place test, give 'em a few minutes and adjust to preference. Maybe even give it a day or more.

When I did the rotate thing, the change was so startling that I knew they'd stay that way. Had more of the character of the MG-1 without the heat of the 1.6 as well as a fuller center image and simply a wider 'listenable' seating area.

Cost? just a few minutes and the electricity you were going to use anyway, to listen to that new album.

A few months ago I heard my Plinius SA-100 mkIII paired with some older Maggie 3A's, and even the SET lovers who were in attendance commented on how liquid and musical this combo was, although the Maggies certainly could have used more power if we wanted to achieve more substantial volume. Also it's important to note that there WERE tubes in the chain to make this listening session much sweeter, which included a Loesch & Weisner preamp and a Lector CDP with NOS Brimar tubes.

Yes, tube in the pre-amp and/or source along with good SS amp is a practical approach. That is where I have landed. I use the tube pre-amp and IcePower Class D amp with SS dac and phono. I have a similar tube dac also but that is not needed and used in my second system to give it just a dash of tubishness in an otherwise all SS setup as well. I have heard some veryy good tube amp setups, but have achieved a comparable sound with minimal # of tubes and associated pains, so I can recommend my systems as decent models for achieving tube amp-like sound without a tube amp.

I actually like it better opposite. I did not originally. I was always told tubes in the preamp and solid state amp. Good solid state preamps are much quieter than tubes and render more inner detail, at least in my case. I cannot find good tubes quiet enough for a preamp, especially in the phono section. You still get the benefits of tubes in this setup Tubes in amp/solid state pre. You also get a more natural bass IMO. There are good tube preamp designs, but where do I get the quiet tubes?