Magnepan 3.6

"i drive a pair of 1.6s with 4 watts."

Four watts? If so, you are not hearing what the speakers can do. You may like it. I would hate it.

hi narrod:

how do you know i'm not hearing what the speakers can do, if i am restricting the spl to 79 db ?

i don't listen loud even when i use my vtl deluxe 120s in terode mode , i.e., 120 watts.

i was not the only one who liked the 1.6s with 4 watts. i was the host of an audio meeting. 6 other members of a club liked what they heard as well.

Mrtennis, "how do you know"

If you like it, you like it. In my experience, the speakers respond to high current/high power that allows them to open up and sound their best. Whatever floats your boat. For my tastes, low wattage would only suffice for background music and involve no critical listening.

I had 3.5R's which are slightly different. That being said, 200 watts tube or solid state is the least I would use with them. My room is large, I listen in the high 80's
spl to a wide variety of music.

If your room is small (not likely with larger Maggies) and
you listen at low levels, then m-a-y-b-e...

Unless you can get in and out of the 40 watt amps without taking a financial hit, I'd say nope. If you can afford to try them then go ahead, nothing to lose.

You will need a bit of luck though, larger Maggies are a pretty stable mostly resistive load, but require current to open up.