difficulty finding CD player match for Magneplanar

Ah yes, Spectron Musician is another excellent suggestion for Maggies. . . Besides the series 2, there is a Spectron Mus 3 being offered on Agon. . . if in good shape, at $3.1K it may be a steal. I understand that the series 3 may be sweeter / more extended than the 2. G.

Timoteo, like most previous answer suggest, you have a very serious bottleneck in your amplifier. I have used your very Maggies 3As for 20 years. . . All Magnepan speakers are major serious power hogs! Not even my original Aragon 4004 was making them happy at 200W per channel. They became a lot happier with the Rowland 7M monoblocks. . . plenty of power there. . . very effortless but not yet enough control for the bass region as their damping factor is only 175 or so. Besides, the old Rowland 7M run very hot to the touch and were simply not right for Texas summers. Your Maggies will truly shine if you feed them what they crave to recieve, lots of power and a relatively high damping factor of perhaps 250 or higher.

You may want to look at amps that are between 300 and 500 watts per channel. Such amps can be real drags on your monthly energy bills. . . unless you use amps that run cool to the touch: some class A/B amps with low bias, and most class D amps would fit the power requirement.
In pure amps I warmly recommend the Bel canto Reference 1000 Mk.2 monoblocks at 500W per channel over 8 Ohms and 1000W over 4 Ohms (the maggie's impedance) and a damping factor of 1000. . . don't be deceived by their small size. . . their sound's deliciously amazing and they even handle my current Vienna Mahler speakers, which may be even more difficult to drive than the Maggies 3As. See my review on Positive Feedback at:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue43/bel_canto_ref1000.htm
If you were willing to consider an integrated amp, you may look the Rowland Continuum 500. . . same 1000W per channel over 4 Ohms and 1000 damping factor, with 40 Amps current of the Bel cantos, with probably a more sophisticated AC power rectification front end and more bulk capacitance in the output, combined with a killer linestage circuit. . . same found in the Rowland Capri pre.
If cool operation were a major factor for you, the Bel Cantos run cooler than the Rowland. . . the front end PFC-based AC rectifier in the Rowland Continuum 500 generates a fair amount of heat.
Only thing to watch out is that class D amps take several hundreds of hours of break in to sound at their best, otherwise they can sound EXTREMELY dry.
As the amp is definitely your weakest link by far, initially you may want to consider getting a relatively inexpensive CDp, such as an OPPO, which are reputed to be fabulous price performers. . . then invest in a higher quality CDp later on if you were not yet satisfied of the results.

Guido

To echo Macdadtexas, I have heard the newer brothers of IIIAs -- the 3.6s -- driven with both JRDG 201 monos (500W into 4 Ohms and same underlying power conversion module as Bel canto Ref 500) and JRDG 501 monos (same power conversion modules as Bel Canto Ref 1000 Mk.2s, and 1000W into 4 Ohms). . . the 201 were clearly underpowered and tended to get glassy at the least dynamic excitement. . . the 501 monos were comfortably driving the Maggies. Please note that I suspect Bel Canto Ref 1000 Mk.2 might be slightly more nuanced than Rowland 501s, unless you add a pair of external PC-1 rectifiers to the 501s, but that would drive up their cost by a further $3K.

G.

Timoteo, find yourself a few players that you really like. . . play with them for 6 months with your Maggies.. . . after you throw in the towel when that your Maggies suffer of dry bass and turn glassy or tense at the 1st appearance of dynamic excitement no matter what CDp you use, consider revisiting the amp power issue.

Excellent point Timoteo. Your amp is obviously more than up to the task. . . time to start churning CD players. Please let us know when you discover one that has enough power for your maggies. Unfortunately we just have no experience in testing CD players for more power on big maggies. . . so we may not be able to offer much advice. You will be a true pioneer in this area. Please keep us all posted. G.

Worth adding that the old 3As are not as efficient as the 3.6s. . . but I fear the argument may be for naught. G.