Planar Speaker Asylum

Welcome! Need support, you got it. Or share your ideas and experiences.

Planar Speaker Asylum

upgrading amp for magnepan 3.6qr

129.62.88.221

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Thread: Display Email Next ] [ Planar Speaker Asylum ]

I will be upgrading my Creek 5350se amp for a more powerful amp driving my Magnepan 3.6qr. The budget is 3 to 5k. I am going to buy on the used market from Audiogon and echohifi in Portland. Any suggestions? I listen to mostly jazz, classical, folk. The rest of the system is as follows:
Denon 3910 Universal player
Theta Digital DS Prime II Digital Analog converter for red book CDs
Magnepan 3.6qr
REL Strata II subwoofer
Vizio 42" LCD HDTV
I like the warmth of tuby sound. I am thinking about McIntosh Integrated amps. High current is a must. High quality amps that will deliver high current and a good quality sound.
Thanks.
Howard

Follow Ups:

Re: upgrading amp for magnepan 3.6qr - Dr.Jazz 08:18:08 12/13/06 (0)
Howard
Best sound I had with my 3.6s was from Musical Fidelity TriVista 300 Integrated Amp - 350w/8, 600w/4 ss monoblocks in one chasis with tube pre, power supply in a seperate chasis. It was better - more transparent, musical, airy with deep and wide soundstage, very well defined bass - over Mac 401 monos and California Audio Labs 2500 MCA. It can be had for ~$3000 used. There is another inmate who uses and loves same combo. Personally, if I went back to MF, I would get the newer 500kw integrated for the added power/control, but price will be much higher.
You could not go wrong with Classe amps either though.
My dealer really loves Classe or MF over Krell & Bryston - and I would agree.
Good luck
AL
Re: upgrading amp for magnepan 3.6qr - gumbedamit 07:58:20 12/13/06 (0)
Hey Howard,
Don't take my word about the Classe CAM350. Below is a link that will tell you the whole story. People go out and spend tons of money on their equipment, so of course their's is the best combination. The link below is a review to exactly the combination that you're looking to do. It was this review that prompted me to get the CAM350's. Happy reading.
gumby
- http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/304/index1.html (Open in New Window)
Re: upgrading amp for magnepan 3.6qr - tjmski 05:52:31 12/13/06 (0)
Hi Howard,
When I owned the MG 3.6/Rs, the best amplifier that drove them was the Innersound amplifier. It took the performance to a whole another realm. Not just a couple of notches. Now you can get an improved version from the original designer Roger Sanders at a much reduced direct price from Sanders Sound Systems. The combination is awesome. For you convenience, here is the link.
http://www.sanderssoundsystems.com/
Regards, Tim
Blue Circle - Magpie 15:39:44 12/12/06 (0)
Hi Howard:
I have always preferred and have had a lot of experience with the Blue Circle/Magnepan combination over all others. I also like McIntosh.
The Blue Circles are the BC26, the BC8....remember to haggle..
Nick
$5K buys you a pair of Gilmore Raptor monoblocks. - Al Sekela 14:26:00 12/12/06 (4)
These will sound better than any amp I can think of, and have 50 milli-ohms output impedance. Their ability to control my MG-20s was an education for me. The folks who have heard them all say they sound warm like tubes but more accurate and detailed.
These are NOT your father's switching amps!
- Re: $5K buys you a pair of Gilmore Raptor monoblocks. - Duke 20:04:11 12/12/06 (3)
  Al, do you have a business relationship with Gilmore? At one time I was under the impression that you did. Correct me if I'm mistaken.
  Thanks,
  Duke
  - Nope. I dropped out. - Al Sekela 21:22:12 12/12/06 (2)
    After the CES show a couple of years ago, I realized my room was too small to show the Gilmore speakers to their advantage and terminated the relationship. There would have been no point in trying to demonstrate the speakers when I could not provide a listening position sufficiently far back to allow the ribbon and woofers to blend.
    I'm simply Mark's friend and reporting what I've found to be true with these amps. They really are that good with low-impedance loads like Magnepans, where tube amps of reasonable size and power dissipation cannot exert sufficient control. I thought the InnerSound amp was a good match for the Magnepan bass panels, but even that size of linear amp does not fully control the speakers.
    I don't know how well users with high-impedance speakers optimized for SET amps would like the Raptors: most of the damping is built in to the speakers by design and increased damping in the amp adds little. These amps have little distortion, and some folks I know seem to like the sweetening of SET second harmonics.
    - Re: Nope. I dropped out. - Duke 22:39:10 12/12/06 (1)
      Thanks for bringing me up to date. Yup there's definitely room for a reasonably-priced amp that can drive the heck out of a pair of big Maggies.
      Regarding speakers designed for low damping factor amps, in most cases probably best to stay with the type of amplification they were designed for. A low damping factor amp will increase its power output into the bass impedance peaks, and this can be used to extend the bass deeper than it would normally go with a high damping factor amp. I use this "cheat" myself.
      Duke
      - Optimum damping is not a cheat. - Al Sekela 08:51:42 12/13/06 (0)
        
        In Reply to: Re: Nope. I dropped out. posted by Duke on December 12, 2006 at 22:39:10:
        
        Every amplifier has a damping factor related to its output impedance, and every dynamic speaker depends on the connected amplifier for its damping. You are right that connecting a speaker that needs higher output impedance in the amplifier to achieve optimum damping (low damping factor) to an amplifier with low output impedance (high damping factor) results in diminished bass power. This is a case of overdamping. The Raptors would not be optimum for speakers designed specifically for amps with high output impedance, as they would overdamp the drivers.
        The other side of the coin, where a speaker that depends on low output impedance in the amp (high damping factor) is connected to an amp with high output impedance (low damping factor), is called underdamping and results in boomy, uncontrolled bass.
        I don't think it is cheating to use an amplifier that provides the damping factor that is close to optimum for a particular speaker. Unfortunately, with multi-way speakers, the damping situation is more complicated. Maggies seem to have inter-driver and out-of-band resonances that need very high damping factors in the amps (over the audio frequency range) to control them. Well-designed box speakers have enough mechanical isolation between the drivers to make this less of a problem. They may still need a high damping factor for each driver, however, depending on the design.
        I posted with permissions a re-write of an article on this topic from 1954-5, when all amps were tube and all good speakers needed lower damping factors. See the link. It was written for the intelligent hobbyist, and is still a good reference.
        Tomcik article (Open in New Window)
Re: upgrading amp for magnepan 3.6qr - gumbedamit 13:33:25 12/12/06 (0)
If I had 3-5K to upgrade my amp, there would only be 2 that would be on that list. If you're looking for a TUBE sound why not go for the VTL450 Mono Blocks. There are currently 2 listings on audiogon, $4500. You will be pleased with the specs. My 2nd choice would be: Classe CAM350 those will man handle your panels at 700 watts per block, awesome!!!!! Check out the reviews on both, that would be the way to go...
Mcintosh does make nice amps, but not for panels, too warm and not enough slam. Hope this helps.
gumby
A good match (high current) - delaney@rea-alp.com 08:36:27 12/12/06 (1)
and a good buy would be a Pass Labs 250, either used or like-new should fit nicely into your budget.. There may be Pass dealers who have like-new 250's in stock as Pass is allowing owners to trade-up to the new 250.5 amp. Use the pre-amp from the Creek until you can go to a tube preamp down the road. Your 3.6R's will benefit from the addional current available with the Pass.
- Re: A good match (high current) - tubevibb 11:43:19 12/12/06 (0)
  Cant go without some Pass,with 3.6r,s thank,s Mac u must put it on the 3.6r an see. Am not sure
gotta lotta options for that budget IMO - Green Lantern 08:32:32 12/12/06 (0)
check out Muralman1's post 1/2 way down regarding the ICE amp.

____________ _// ________________
listen

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Analog Engineering Associates

You can not post to an archived thread.