Maggie 3.6 amplification concern

I think most people do not know how loud and lifelike Maggies speakers can be. Most of the time they are woefully underdriven.

I have the 1.6's and I tried the tube route. I started with a Rogue 88 and then went to the Rogue 120 Magnums (120 watts per channel) and they never came to life at all. I then tried the Zero autoformers (which increase the impedance of your speakers as seen by the amp and should be a better match for the tube amp) from Paul Speltz and even though this improved the sound greatly it still never came to life. I then tried an Innersound ESL amp (over 600 watts driving Maggies) and the difference was astounding. They had unbelievable dynamic range and presence but the sound grew a little tiresome and was a little anemic so I ended up with a Plinius SA100 MKIII which has 100 watts class A power and is a nice compromise between the sound of tubes and the control of solid state but still -- does not have anywhere near enough power to properly drive these speakers.

When someone tells you these speakers need 500 watts you should believe them if you want to achieve lifelike listening volumes. I would not have believed it myself but the 1.6's will come alive and really sound dynamic, not like a typical planer at all. I also think the 3.6's need a little more power than the 1.6's so my recommendation is to try the tube amp out under the condition that you can return it.

I regret trying the tubes as it cost me in the long run, I have had nothing but tubes for 20 years and did not want to make the switch to solid state but the Plinius actually has nicer tone than the Rogue even though the Rogue is a little more liquid in the midrange.

I hope this is helpful, please tell us what you learn.

Phil

Tireguy, I have a single VK60 driving a pair of Watt/Puppy 6's. Most the of magazines say the WP's really come to life with big solid state amps. That single vk60 sounds pretty darn good to me. The old saying the tube watts are a little different than SS watts might apply for you.

Years ago, I had a pair of MG1's driven with a 50 watt Audio research tube amp. It sounded wonderful.

However, if you can try before you buy...

Also, what's your room size? Smaller room can mean a little less power.

Good luck

I'm with Phil on this. You need power and control with the Maggies and only solid state will give you that. In my bi-amped InnerSound system I use the 600 Wpc InnerSound amp to drive the woofers and the Monarchy Audio SE-160 Class-A hybrid monoblocks to drive the ESL panels and the sound is truly amazing. As Phil noted, when used full range, the InnerSound amp leaves some room for improvement. For that reason, I would probably opt for high-powered hybrids like the Monarchy SE-160s, which provide over 300 Watts each into 4 ohm loads. They use a single tube input driver and a beefy MOSFET output stage. Their sound is very lifelike, open, and detailed. They communicate the music better than any other amps I have used (and I've been through quite a few).

Another alternative that would yield almost as good sonics but with higher power would be to use a SS powerhouse (like the InnerSound ESL amp) in combination with a tube line buffer such as the Z-man ASE or the Musical Fidelity X-10D.

I have used the InnerSound amp with the Z-man to drive Maggie 12/QR speakers and that offered a nice improvement over the InnerSound amp by itself. It combines some of the liquidity and sweetness of tubes with the brute force and control of solid state. Frankly I'm surprised that more folks aren't taking advantage of this type of setup.