I agree with your friend on the Maggies. I have three pairs and they are great high performance bargains. But as others above have stated, they require a lot of power to sound their best. He should be looking for an integrated amp of at least 100 watts per channel. Anything less and he won’t realize the Maggies’ full potential.
Friend needs advice for $8,000 system
My friend is starting out from scratch with an $8,000 budget. He listens to all sorts, but mainly indie rock. He's keen on the Magnepan .7 speakers and lives in a small apartment, so listening room about 4x3 metres. Don't worry about cables. We just need a power amp, a turntable, a cartridge, a phono stage, NOS tubes, and a DAC.
How do we achieve:
Truthful tonality/timbre
Truthful harmonics
Liquid sound
Transparency
Speed/Dynamics/Pace/Rhythm/Timing
Soundstage Coherence
All for $8,000 new.
Cheers!