@kythyn He ran a set of our MA-1s and also MA-2s. IME you can use any good 200 watt tube amp and it will run quite nicely. A good inexpensive example is the RM-200 from Roger Modjesky.
My speakers are set. Magnepan Tympani IVs
A year ago I acquired a pair of restored Tympani IVs (not IVa). I have been driving them with an Adcom GFA - 555 that I have had for decades. The matching pre-amp died and has been replaced with a Schiit SYS Passive pre.
The primary source was CD but has transitioned to a Bluesound Node 2 running TIDAL. I will be playing the MQAs whenever possible. My musical tastes are eclectic, with a pronounced preference for female vocalists, piano and acoustic guitar. Genres include rock of the 60s, jazz, folk, world, Celtic and classical.
The Tympanis do not suffer from the lower register issues to the same degree as some of the other Magnepans, but are still prone to occasionally overwhelming highs. New components should tend towards the warm to mitigate this issue.
It is time to upgrade the amp. The consensus judgement of people whom I respect and whom own these speakers are that they should be bi-amped. Options include separate amps for highs and lows and an electronic crossover (Horizontal ?) or monoblocks (Vertical ?)
I am only into the Tympanis for $1000, but have budgeted $2000 for amplification. One thing I have come to learn is that the traditional percentages of investment don’t always apply when Magnepans are involved as they offer such a high sound quality/cost ratio.
Cables and room treatments are on the to-do list. As always, I am here to draw upon the experience of the Audiogon community. Please share your thoughts. If you see something for sale here, please call it out as I am having trouble sorting through the plethora of options.
The primary source was CD but has transitioned to a Bluesound Node 2 running TIDAL. I will be playing the MQAs whenever possible. My musical tastes are eclectic, with a pronounced preference for female vocalists, piano and acoustic guitar. Genres include rock of the 60s, jazz, folk, world, Celtic and classical.
The Tympanis do not suffer from the lower register issues to the same degree as some of the other Magnepans, but are still prone to occasionally overwhelming highs. New components should tend towards the warm to mitigate this issue.
It is time to upgrade the amp. The consensus judgement of people whom I respect and whom own these speakers are that they should be bi-amped. Options include separate amps for highs and lows and an electronic crossover (Horizontal ?) or monoblocks (Vertical ?)
I am only into the Tympanis for $1000, but have budgeted $2000 for amplification. One thing I have come to learn is that the traditional percentages of investment don’t always apply when Magnepans are involved as they offer such a high sound quality/cost ratio.
Cables and room treatments are on the to-do list. As always, I am here to draw upon the experience of the Audiogon community. Please share your thoughts. If you see something for sale here, please call it out as I am having trouble sorting through the plethora of options.
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Georehii - thanks for all your help. I will know in the next couple days if I can stretch to a pair of the JC1s. Will hey work with my passive preamp or should I start looking for another preamp, and should it be tube or S.S.? atmasphere - will the RM-200 handle the Tympanis IVs full range or should I plan on a class d for the bass panels? |
@atmasphere, thanks for mentioning the RM-200, it unfortunately is not as well recognized as Roger's other designs, but it is quite a work horse. It is also fully balanced from input to output, the only time Roger made a commercially available balanced amp. The amp has 8, 4, 2, and 1 ohm taps and is the only tube amp I am aware of that puts out more power into lower speaker loads. @kythyn, there are a few Martin Logan customers we know of that use the RM-200, and I believe @bdp24 owns one, but not sure he has used it with his Maggies. Personally I like the idea of bi-amping. |
kythyn OP Perfect, as the JC1’s only need 1v in to give their full output of 400w!!!! Definitely no need for any active preamp with gain, and the input impedance is 100k XLR and 50k SE again perfect for a passive. And don’t discount the A21 they will also drive the Tympani’s full range, but if you can, get the JC1’s because with those you can up the anti on the Class-A with the bias switch on the back, and they will sing in the mids/highs and give bass like nothing else mentioned here, except for the bigger Gryphon’s but they will cost big time. Cheers George |
- 35 posts total