Okay I Bought the Magnepan 3.6's

Stickman451,
I used a couple of different Plinius amps and Plinius 8100 and 8150 intergraded amps, and a Krell KAV 400 XI. Those sounded good but the SX 1000 monoblocks sound great in all respects. I never compared the SX 1000 to any of the Pass Lab products which I’m sure would also sound great. I didn’t want to spend a fortune on amplification.

You need a lot of power. I own a Pass Labs X350.5 and use it to drive my Apogee Duetta Sigs. The more power with Magies or any planar type speakers the better. I would be very careful with using your NAD power amp to run your new Magnepans you can damage them with not having enough power. The magnepan 3.6 are a mighty fine speaker.

I had the McIntosh 501's with my Maggies and I changed them out for Innersound ESL's. I thought with my Maggies the Mac's were slow and muddy in comparison to the Parasound JC-1's they replaced. The Mac's are great amps, and sound great at my buddies house with his big B & W's, but I did not like them with the Maggies.

I still think the best amps I have heard with Maggies are the very hard to find Cary CAD 500 MB's. I like them better than the Pass X350.5 that I recently borrowed, and that is high praise, because the Pass did sound very good.

Okay, it's still early, but my initial reactions to the Mac 402 are not knocking my socks off.. Sounds a little slow, too laid back and too polite, lacking some speed and rhythm, and the bass is absent... Haven't given up yet; will let them play a few more hours and let them cook overnight...

Maybe I am headed for a Pass.

I should know, I have one and use it myself with my Maggie 3.6's. Really plenty of power, and the sound is, I think, superb, not much different than, or maybe identical to, the Pass 250.5's.

The thing with the Pass 150.5 is that it's not really 150 wpc @ 8 ohm. It's really like other manufacturer's 250 wpc amps. Explanation: Hi Fi News, the British mag, when they reviewed the Pass 150.5 about 2 years ago or so, found that it clipped at 8 ohms at 270 wpc!! Not 150 wpc. And, at 4 ohms, it clipped at close to 400wpc. I may be off a few wpc in my memory (I have the review someplace here) but not by much.

I use my Maggies in a reasonably sized room and barely have the amp turned up. My friend had the same set up - 150.5 with Maggie 3.6, and felt it was a great match.

If you try the 150.5 and for some reason want more power, you can sell it very quickly on A'gon.