Driving Magnepan 1.7

Great discussion that I can relate to in many ways. I have had Maggie 1.6's for years and have used them with a Bryston 3BST which was very good. I upgraded to the ARC 150.2 Tripath Amp, which was a major improvement in almost every department. I have stayed with this combo, which also includes the Audibile Illusions M3A Tube Preamp. I feel no need to change. This is a match made in heaven. I also use a Vandersteen sub, very sparingly, mainly because it opens things up even more! Sound stage, imaging, etc, sublime. Incredible sound.

I also have another system with Vandersteen 3A Sigs driven by Red Dragon M-500 Mono Blocks. I tried them with Quicksilver V4's which were very nice and smooth, with a deep sound stage, but to my ears, too much of the same thing in both speakers and amps. The RD M-500's (Class D) bring more snap and punch to the party while also bringing out the beauty and finesse that the Vandy's have in spades. The RD amps are driven by an ARC SP16 Tube Preamp and SCE HRS Interface. Again, sound stage, imaging,etc, sublime! Incredible sound as well.

Vandersteen and Magnepan are both wonderful loudspeakers and when you take the time to feed them and set them up properly, you really can't go wrong. That's the problem with most demo's of them:improper set up and not the right synergy with front end components.
I've gotten almost all of my gear from John Rutan and the crew at Audio Connection in Verona, N.J. They know how to do it correctly with both Magnepan and Vandersteen, and can help you with set up in your own home. Your room is just as important as the gear so you'll have to take the time to see what set-up works best for you and your tastes.

I also might add that the Quicksilvers are sublime with an old pair of Snell E-III's. It's taken a long time and a lot of moving things around, but I've never been so happy with my audio systems. Good luck with your audio endeavors.

Odyssey Stratos sound wonderful with my 1.7's and 3.7's. Klaus is an awesome guy too!

I auditioned the 1.7's with NAD M3's too, which sounded nice as well.

I have a pair of Magnepan 1.7s and had run them with a Wyred 4 Sound STI-500. Unbelievable detail but over many months I became to dislike the very lean sound. I tried running a BADA Chinese tube preamplifier into the W4S STI-500 using it as just an amplifier. Much better results. The music took on a lifelike presentation with a much warmer and pleasing sound. It was an amazing difference.

Owning Magnepans for 30 years, I have found that if the amp is pretty good but lean sounding, a tubed preamp can solve the issues of warmth and three dimensional sound. This way, if you want to rock out, you can with a powerful solid state amp driven by a tubed preamp.

One thing that I have found with the Magnepan 1.7s is that you get amazing enjoyment out of the speakers at very low listening levels. Given a good DAC and clean sounding amplifier, the Magnepans sound terrific at low, medium and higher levels.

Magnepans are very unique where you get people saying they need enormous amounts of power while other say you only need a good 50 watt amp. Both are right in my experience. If, like me, you listen to a lot of acoustic music - classical, jazz and acoustic rock - I use less than 10 watts of power 90% of the time. So Magnepans do work with low power very well.

However, I notice as you turn the volume up, the Magnepans seem to absorb much more power to get just a little addition in volume levels. This is why I believe many Magnepan owners favor high to incredibly high power amplifiers. So based on how you like to listen to music you may be in the low, medium or high power amp range.

If you want to save money but have something that will provide a tube sound with 190 watts into 4 ohms, consider the BADA DC-225 hybrid integrated amp on Pacific Valve website. It is $1199 (less if you send a check).

If you are adventurous, take a look on the Cattylink website. I am considering the Bada Purer 3.3 or 3.8SE hybrid integrated amplifiers with more power just for those times you want to turn up the volume.

There are several other Chinese brands that offer hybrid integrated amps that would fit the needs of the Magnepans. Check out Shanling A300 integrated, as well.

Having lived with a BADA Amp and preamp in my system for several years I am quite happy with the sound and build quality. I had replaced the BADA combo with the W4S STI-500 for a year or two then sold the W4S and came back to the BADA combo.

I have a pair of Coda S-1 monos that I could make available. progressivefaith at yahoo dot com

Wifey away so having some fun. Unplugged my 700 wpc transistor amp for the day and hooked up my 5 wpc Dennis Had Inspire SE EL84 tube power amp and giving the Maggies a run. Can't hear any clipping and volumes are fine for condo living.