Has anyone tried SET tubes amps with maggie 1.6's


My long time ss amp died a few weeks ago, and I only had a tiny integrated, single ended pentode, 5 watt tube amp on hand, to run my maggie 1.6's. To my astonishment it worked!

The manufacturer of this tiny SET is no longer in business: Wright audio, there were 2 companies with the same name, this one was out of Seattle.

Of course the musical picture is not quite complete. There is a noticeable lack of punchy bass and dynamics are softened compared with a Plinius 8200 mk2 that I auditioned not long ago (of course that has 175 ss watts compared to 5 watts with my tube SEP).

However that aside, the sound is actually quite loud enough and the realism is nothing less than startling. Femal voices, for instance, have a warmth, body, tenderness, emotion and silky transparancy that melts your heart and often brings me to tears. Strings are rendered with a rich silky transparancy as well. Horns, woodwinds, and guitars seem to posses an extra dimension that is uncanny.

As you might suspect, when the music gathers to a complex transient pitch, the instruments muddy as the amp clips. And there is a bit of sibilance from time to time. Also the piano losses its authority as the all-over dynamics are restricted. The sound stage also softens somewhat and losses its potential perception of real depth.

However the sound reminds me of the new iteration of the older British Quads, the 998, which I heard recently. In fact the maggies with this SEP amp sounds better, more involving.

I should mention that I modified my maggies by using large Hovland capacitors, and huge copper coil inductors from Alpha Core, in place of the standard ones, which might be contributing to the maggies all over sense of refinement here.

I would deeply appreciate it, if anyone in our audiophile community, has had experience with an SET amp that had/has a bit more power than my 5 watt SEP, and what your results were on the maggie 1.6's. Especially in the area of dynamics, and low level resolution of complex musical passages.

If there is a not-to-terribly expensive SET amp that might work for the 1.6's, I will stop my search for an ss amp (which up until now is somewhat disapointing because of hardness of strings and the lack of real warmth to voices) and concentrate on auditioning SET's.

I would like to thank everyone in advance for your help and idease which I deeply appreciate.
america
Check out Wright sound Company out of Kent, Washington at http://www.wright-sound.com. This may be the manufacturer you're thinking of and they're still very much in business.
This sounds like a fun "band-aid" solution...but as you already know...Maggies need power...and the SET aint gonna cut it....Bryston amps are know for emphasizing bass output...and they mate real well with Mags...good luck...
On second thought the latest Magnepan speakers, which includes the 1.6, are more efficient due to the lighter and faster mylar diaphram. Also the 4 ohm load will double the power of a SET amplifier. If the SET amp sounds good I'd say go for it.
Maggies and tubes RULE period. Those choosing SS and especially 4BSTs are missing what their Maggies can do.

Yes ,the Maggies need power, their are many high powered tube amps out there.

Many many years ago every Maggie owner worth his salt used tubes, I have no Idea how and why SS became the current choice.

When I owned Maggies I tried a 150wpc SS and was disapointed
in overall sound and max volume. Later I swapped the SS for a small black box, a Mini -Mite 2 tube amp, 40 wpc, instant magic and more balls than the 150 SS.

PS In the good old days most bi-amped, with tubes on top and SS on bottom.
SET and Maggies1.6 may be a bit too compromised (I was somewhat happy witht my 7W SET with Maggies 1.6s though).

If I still own the 1.6s, my first choice is probably a good tube amp. One Cary Rocket 88 (20W?) reviewer was very happy with the amp driving a piar of 1.6s. I think it will come down to how loud you listen and how big the listening room you have. To me there is not much point to have 200W amp if you use only the first 10W for most of your listening session. Of course it helps for a peak dynamic.

ake