Ok, some of you suggested Magnepan 1.6QR


But which to drive it properly? High current amps seem to be prefered than warm tube amps; true or false?
nachtmusik_sgb77f

Showing 2 responses by john_l

I recommend tubes. I drove mine with three amps: The McCormack DNA1, a conrad johnson mv-50 (45 watt tube amp), and a vt100m2. I think the best of the bunch was the vt100 then the mv-50, then the dna. The maggies really seemed to like tubes. The mv-50 had NO PROBLEM driving them. I was amazed. All the power and bass you could ever want. I have to note that with my Audio Physic speakers, the dna and vt100 were extremely close in sound quality but not so with the maggies. Those things like tubes. One of my friends vehemently disagrees, saying the dna is much better than the mv-50 due to it's increased detail and transparency. The other agrees that the mv-50 is a much wonderful match. You lose transparancy to the vt100 and DNA, but the forwardness and lush quality of the midrange (esp with vocals) is simply wonderful. It's like having a person with a six-foot tall head singing in your room. I will say that if your decor allows it, you cannot go wrong with these speakers.
I don't want to suggest that the 1.6's sounded bad with the dna. In fact it was quite excellent. It IS a good match! I just noticed that you could hear the tube 'liveness' and the solid state 'deadness' much more so through the 1.6's. I've never heard a speaker for which this was more apparent. The coherence provided by the panel driver was augmented by a tube amplifier's spaciousness. Amps shine with different speakers. The dna was head and shoulders the better than my vt100 with my old Vandersteen 3aSignatures, and neck and neck on my AP virgo's. Individual tastes will vary.