Tube amp with Maggi 1.6?


Would love to hear your experience
cybergaze
Many think that Magnepans need much current and wattage.. perhaps. I have used the MG-20, 1.6 and 3.6 with everything from 400 watt per channel solid state to 30 watt per channel tube (VAC Ren 30/30). If you listen to decent music at reasonable volumes, the quality of the wattage..in SS/Tube gear is more of an issue than the brute strength.
There is another great thread on amps for maggies. I had a set, and I found that tube amps sounded quite a bit better than solid state. My other speakers tended to treat tube amps and ss much more equally. Not everyone has this opinion ! I drove mine to high volume using a 45 watt tube amp - no problem.
I have had 5 different pair of Magnepans over the past 20+ years and now currently have 1.6's. I have driven them with many amps both SS and tube. Let me say that I love tube amps and have several...both SET and push-pull. I have tried several larger tube amps with the 1'6's ...but keep going back to SS for these speakers. One of my favorite large tube amps that I used for some time was the Mesa Baron. It did a nice job with the Maggies and also sounded very good with several other dynamic speakers I have. It is a very flexible large tube amp and can pretty much be configured for any speakers you want to drive. I believe there are other good larger tube amps out there that one can employ, (VAC, ARC) but to get any better than the Baron you have to spend a lotta bucks.
I know that I am most likely repeating myself here (as I have said this in other posts) but I have had great sound with my 1.6's driving them with an Ayre V3 amp. I have tubes in my preamp a Audible Illusions Modulus 3A (latest version) and phono stage an EAR 834P. I have had many other solid state amps in my system but the Ayre is the only one that sounds right to me. I had heard good things about the Bel Canto EVo 200.2, had it in my system and hated it, it just didn't sound like music to me, I would be curious what a great tube amp would sound like?