Magnepan Recommended Amps - at least my picks

channel islands audio amps

dont exhibit the maladies you ascribe to class d amps. and as you know the spectron is d class as well (from the inventor). my friend had the cia d200s driving the mg12s to great effect plus von schweickert himself demoed his $50k speaker system with them which mightily impressed ME.

using the spectron on only the bass tells me that you have too much expendable cash. i'll swap you my adcom 555II for it. heheheheheh!

Lol

Quote:

Originally Posted by hifitommy

using the spectron on only the bass tells me that you have too much expendable cash. i'll swap you my adcom 555II for it. heheheheheh!

Well it's not like I have a dozen fancy-schmancy HT rooms to choose from every day, like some people here. Fact is, I typically have to sell stuff to be able to afford something new, and this x-mas season I did pretty well. So I do have some extra cash to spend, but then again, I still have to get through tax season...argh!

Regarding Channel Islands, I've actually visited the manufacturer and took a considerable interest in the mono amps a few years ago, but my experience with them was not that stellar (certainly not what Stereophile's reviewers heard). The mids and treble, while certainly respectable were still a bit subdued and they lacked a bit of air and separation. So far, only the higher end stuff from PS Audio and the Spectron amps have impressed me. Still haven't had a chance putting a good pair of Bel Cantos through their paces, and on the class-d front, that's probably where I'd look next. Channel Islands amps are very good, don't get me wrong, but I have to defer to what John Ulrick never tires of saying: class-d amps are not all the same and they are incredibly hard to do right.

Another point Ulrick makes is that class-d amps require much more power to compete with regular solid state amps, and while I don't exactly understand why, I have to agree that power does make a difference to my ears. The 100W or less class-d amps just seem to lack more than their big power siblings. For some reason it affects the whole sound, even on more sensitive speakers than planars. Maybe someone can chime in and explain this? Getting back to Channel Islands, I only tried their little 100/200w amps, so that may be a factor as to why I didn't like them so much - it was also some time ago, so maybe things have changed a bit since?

FWIW, I am using 2 Halo A21s in a passive bi-amp config (soon to go active). THose amps are excellent with the mags...as was my Pass X-150.

And I can tell you that the Velodyne Optimum 10 is a fantastic match at least if you have a pair of them. Frickin tight fast bass that blends with the mags.