Bryston Amp for Magnepan 3.5R

Warren:
Bridging them is a good idea. I completely forgot about that. That sure would be cost effective. Does anyone have any experience with bridging 3B to power the Maggies this way?

How timely your question is. I just picked up a pair of 3.5rs and bought a Classe CA-200 to mate with them. The Classe is an extremely nice sounding amp. It is very neutral and does not really sound like tubes or SS, it just sounds natural. And this is coming from a dyed in the wool tube fanatic. It is very powerful and drives the Maggies with no trouble whatsoever. I can't begin to tell you how much I love this combination. Highly recommended.

Oz

Move up to a 4bsst or if you can swing it get the 14b, and then you can warm and sweetin thing's up with a tube preamp.You need big clean power with maggies first to open them up. Now if you want tube amps for the 3-series and up you better look to some manley neo 500's or the VTL 450 monos, The power company will love you for your efforts.

I second the vote for bridging the amps. This option would be the most cost effective, although there are reportedly sonic tradeoffs when amps are bridged. I biamped my MG-IIIs with excellent results for many years. You could use one amp for each speaker. I also believe there is a switch on the back of your amp that will allow them to be bridged. Consult your manual or give Bryston a call, they should be very helpful and can give you some hints as to the best way to go.

Bryston does not recommend bridging their amps into 4 ohm loads, so I don't think that is the way to go. I used a 3B-ST with a pair of MG12s, and that was a good match. Some people don't like Bryston with the true ribbon models, but Fremer mentioned in Stereophile a while ago hearing a Magnepan/Bryston system at a show and thinking it sounded pretty good. Don't remember which model, either 3.6s or 20s.