a couple of questions about maggies

In answer to your first question, the stock MG12QR cannot be bi-wired. As far as amplification goes, I used a Bryston BP-20/3B-ST combo with great sucess. I would think the McCormack would be fine.

Have you listened to Magnepans before? The bass presentation is very good, but it is very different than most conventional speakers. I personally preferred using a sub with the MG12QR, and can recommend a ACI Titan LE.

The reason I asked if you had heard Magnepans before is that mentioned that you liked a solid clean bass line. The cool thing about dipoles is the way the bass frequencies load the room. It is very clean and tonally accurate. But it doesn't have the visceral impact that dynamic speakers convey, at least until you get into the very large panels. For that reason I would not call them a speaker for bass lovers.

Are you purchasing the 12's or the 1.6's? I agonized before I bought them as to whether the 1.6s were too big and ended up with the 12's. After having them in my living room for a year or so, I kind of regret my decision. The reality is that if you can tolerate the space the 12's take up, you can live with the 1.6's. The real difference is in height. They basically take up the same amount of floor space.

I would consider a sub almost mandatory for the 12's, but you might not need one for the 1.6's. The main difference would be that you would probably need 150-200W @ 8 ohms for 1.6's as opposed to 60-120 for the 12's.

Recently, I snatched up a demo pair of Dynaudio Contour 3.0's at a good price. Great speakers, but there are still some things I miss about the Maggie's. Good luck with your decision!