Looking for a great amp for Mini Maggies
Jan 29, 2012 at 12:15 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 6

mcdeeda

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i tested out a pair of Mini Maggies today and, my god, they were marvelous. best speakers i've ever heard. so i've decided to get a pair, but my question is, what amplifier should i go with for them? the guy at the audio store noted that they need a LOT of power (they were driving it with a ~80wpc dac/amp, and said that that was probably the minimum for how much power they'd need), and i'm not really familiar with the speaker amp game.
 
my price range is between $1000 and $2500 for the amp, i'd love some help on this. i'm not very knowledgeable on the subject.
 
Feb 10, 2012 at 11:55 PM Post #2 of 6
I just got the Mini Maggies a few weeks ago and I am using them with the Rega Brio-R.  Although it is only rated at 73W into 4 Ohms, it pairs really nicely with them.  In your price range, you may want to look at the new Peachtree Audio products that were just announced at CES.  You may also want to look at some mono blocks.
 
Hope that helps...
 
Erik
 
Feb 11, 2012 at 6:36 PM Post #3 of 6


Quote:
I just got the Mini Maggies a few weeks ago and I am using them with the Rega Brio-R.  Although it is only rated at 73W into 4 Ohms, it pairs really nicely with them.  In your price range, you may want to look at the new Peachtree Audio products that were just announced at CES.  You may also want to look at some mono blocks.
 
Hope that helps...
 
Erik


Are you in the US? There's always a healthy supply of used integrated amplifiers on Audiogon that would fit the bill...
 
 
Feb 15, 2012 at 2:04 PM Post #5 of 6
with that kind of money i would just splurge on a 1980's Yamaha MX-1000 power amp and be end-game since that amp can push 1000w into a 1ohm load. it would even make short work with pair of Apogee Scintilla speakers known to be amp killers due to their impedance of 1ohm nominal. you can easily score a MX-1000 under thousand bucks. hell might even get lucky and can get them under 600 on the used market depending on condition.

4ohms is not really a difficult load to be honest. you can look at some vintage amps too(sansui,kenwood,scott,H/K,pioneer,marantz,sherwood,sony,ect.) and save yourself some money. most of them will have zero issues with 4ohm speakers only brand i know that can drive very low impedances under 4ohms with no sweat from their BOTL to TOTL list is the 1980's yamaha power amps. even the M-40/45 can push up to around 390w into a 2ohm load and are all switchable class A with insanely good cooling. they barely even run luke warm in class A operation and built insanely well with heavy metal cases and cool looking red power meters. yamaha made good receivers as well. to save money i would just go with something like a M-65 and C-65 combo. for brand new and current model amps Krell makes some killer amps still and known for their high quality components and big toroidal power transformers.

also don't worry too much on the amps power rating(wattage) since speakers are always measured at 1w@1m@8ohms. Maggies are pretty sensitive speakers and have good sensitivity so loudness wise you'll probably won't be pushing more then a few watts into them. it's the dynamics and impedance dips and spikes(planers are very flat across the frequency spectrum in their impedance so don't have to worry bout this part) that use up the extra power and rest of the power is dissipated as heat in the voice coil of the speaker and the heatsink of the amp but it doesn't mean of course you can't use the extra headroom especially if you have the money for it. you get the best you can for your money as always.
 
Mar 20, 2013 at 11:16 AM Post #6 of 6
Agree with peachtree recommendation also Magnepan is selling the wadia 151 digital power amp to match. If space is an issue check wyred4sound mint or bel canto. I have and older Mcintosh solid state power amp with a benchmark dac as pre amp bought from audiogon. But that will take a lot of space. Happy hunting
 

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