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Suggestions for the best SS amp for Tympani 4a's

Happy Holidays fellow A'goners,

I need some help with trying to pick the appropriate SS amp to power my Magnepan Tympani 4a's.

I have been using a Joule Electra 80-80 with Paul Speltz autoformers. I know that this amp doesn't produce enough watts to do these speakers justice. I love the OTL sound, but unfortunately, this amp is really not appropriate for the speakers that I currently have.

I would like to keep my choices of ss amps to 4k or so in cost.
My short list at present would be:

1) Parasound JC-1's...used
2) Pass Labs X250...I don't know if this amp has enough juice to
adequately power the 4a's either.

If I make this switch in amps, I want it to be a positive step forward
so any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and Happy Listening!!
128x128scifi
gregadd
574 posts
 
These speakers were designed for Audio Research. How about a ARC VT 100 or VT200. The JC 1 is good, also Bryston 7b. The maggies are easy to drive but need power to play loud where they really come allive.
greg
metramonkey
1 posts
 
I have a pair of Tympani ID's and I was briefly driving them with my NAD 50w 320BEE, which actually worked, although no doubt they weren't singing. I switched to an NAD C372 which has 150WPC and they came to life, not bad for an amp under $800. I briefly tried bridging the 372 into one speaker and it was alive, although NAD doesn't recommend bridging into a 4 ohm load I didn't have any problems at moderate volumes, which in my case wasn't my neighbor two flights commenting that I had an awsome set of speakers, I have audiophile neighbors.

If you have the bucks I would definitely try a Bryston amp but for under $1300 the NAD 372/272 set up is great.

Sincerely the metramonkey
cwlondon
1,210 posts
 
Have you thought about a Mark Levinson 23.5?

Mine was highly recommended "off the record" by the factory.
mikej
172 posts
 
A new BEL 1001 mk V or a pair of used Mk IIs or IVs if you can find them.
rsquared
24 posts
 
Scifi, if you happen to check back here, give Mikej's BEL 1001 mkV (or a pair of used mk IVs) serious consideration. I switched from a Bryston 4BNRB to a BEL 1001 mk IV and was very pleased. The mk V is a big improvement.

I know of very few ss amps, and certainly none near their (relatively low) price that produce such effortless openness with planars. They produce prodigious amounts of current and never break a sweat driving difficult loads. BEL's designer/manufacturer is a music-loving minimalist (mil. spec. low parts count, short, simple signal paths) who constantly improves his design. This is his only electronic product.

Good luck.
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