Which Amp for Magnepan MG 3.6/R?

3.6's LOVE power.

The more power you can feed them the better.

Personally, I have driven 3.6's with 2 Plinius SA100mk3 amps in mono (665wpc into the maggies). The sound was very good.

I have been told the Bryston Amps also work very wekk with maggies. Large Pass amps do as well. The best amp though, running the maggies is quite possibly the Lamm m1.1 monoblocks (200 watts Class A inot 4 ohms).

KF

I would not recommend the Simaudio Moon W-5. I used it with the Maggie 3.6's and thought it had a lot to be desired.

KF

Artar1,

Why would you need to send a Plinius amp back to New Zealand to be fixed???? Last time I checked they have a repair center in Oklahoma in the USA (it may be in NY now). But they have good customer support in the US.

One of the best deals in amplification right now is the Plinius SA250 mk4 used. People are dumping them. It really is a shame. This amp is world class in a lot of ways. My only problem with it is it is a hearnia waiting to strike. It weights something like 150 lbs! Ouch my back!

Another option would be go for mono Bel Canto 200.2 amps. These amps are amazingly powerful, and would probably drive the Maggies very well.

All I would suggest is think power and current. The more power and current your amp has, the better it will be at driving the Maggies. No 100 wpc amp in the world save something like the LAMM M1.1 monoblocks is going to sound as good as the Plinius SA-250 amp into the Maggies. This might be a little bit of an overstatement... but not by much.

KF

Altar1,

People are dumping SA250mk4 amps because Plinius is in the process of upgrading their entire amp line. They started with the SA102, and the SA250 will be replaced I am sure as well. Plinius amps are great for driving Maggies. Maggies need and crave power. Plinius amps deliver it.

I think the GamuT D-200 is sonically superior to every one of your amps on your short list. I am selling mine to pay off some impending bills. However, I will replace it with a new D-200 in the future (watch for my review).

This being said about the GamuT D-200, I would NOT recommend buying a D-200 to drive Maggie 3.6's until you hear the results for yourself. The D-200 is a powerful amp; however, it really is not designed for speaker that are very difficult to drive. The 3.6's are on the very edge of what I would drive a D-200 with. HOWEVER, the GamuT might drive the Maggies very well... I would love to hear it tried. Why would I not try to drive the Maggies with the powerful D-200? The D-200 is designed to see a load less than 1.5 ohms as a short, and the circuit protection kicks in and the amp shuts down.

I know Maggie 3.6's dip pretty low in ohms in the bass (I think around 1.5 if I remember), so the D-200 would not be my first amp of choice when laying out a system on paper (without trying it first).

NOW if you have an active crossover from your subs to your Maggies (the subs getting everything below maybe 40hz), I would absolutely reccommend the GamuT D-200. The D-200 is amazingly detailed and transparent with neutrality that few solid state amps achieve (especially in the $8k and under price range).

KF

That is cool Artar1.

Personally, I think those tonality problems would be fixed with a better source and better power cords and maybe even a better preamp. Anyway, it is hard to pin down what device is causing any one problem in a system without knowing a system well and a lot of trial and error component replacing.

I think the GamuT should be able to drive the VR4's without any issue.

Anyway, it is good to hear someone say something about the D-200. Because it is not that well known of an amp here in the US, people really do not realize just how great it sounds. At it's price point it is a good value. Used it is practically a steal.

KF