Will Creek 5350 SE drive Magnepan 1.6QR?

Do you know the degree of distortion of the amp? Is it <0.1% over a 5hz-50khz frequency range. There are amps with way less (ATI for instance is <0.005%), but anything more and I think you are pretty much out of the 'hi-fi' catagory.

What do you mean by 'good'?

Can't have too much power for the Maggies. Infact, I really don't think you can ever have too much power. Maybe too much zeal with your volume control. Prudence with the volume knob= healthy speakers.

If you put more power into the speaker than they are made to stand damage will result. That is why the mfgr gives minimum power requirement, and Maximum to protect them.

I am curious why Magnapan so sidesteps the power issue unlike any other mfgr. Even if there is no concensus among the users how much power they 'like' for them to 'sound' a certain way. Perplexing though that notion is.

It is rational to provide a little more power than the minimum requirement for a sense of ease at higher playback levels, which is subtle. Any other 'sound' issue, other than the degree of distoriton inherent in the amp, is mysterious to me.

But then audiophilia is not without its sorcerers with aversion to any kind of science even in this electronic playback media. (he says 'in jest', warren :-)

Didactially- Its clear you have NO experience in this matter and should NOT be making assumutions- they clearly hold no weight. I know of folks who have/are using amps in excess of 2400 watts per channel with superb results and have experienced ZERO damage to the speaker. In fact the only time you will damage the speaker is when distortion is introduced, a huge killer of magnepan tweeters is when an amp clips(inadequate power). I don't know anyone who is using magnepans who has experience driver failure with to much power, however, the same is not true of those who use lower power amps.

Personally I have been running 600 watts of high current power(per channel) for close to 6 months with great results. One of my friends has been using 800 watts of high current power(per channel) with his magnepans, no problems at all. I am running between 2-3 fold the recommended power! Try and get bass out of these speakers with any 200 watt amp! its a joke.

How much experience do you have with magnepan's again?

You are not going to get 'bass' out of a Maggie. It takes sub woofers (hybrid) to get to the lower frequencies. Even then, frequency integration is a challenge with those designs. The 1.6 only goes to what 40hz? No amount of power is going to change the frequency response of any speaker.

Imagining otherwise is just nonsense.

If you want the advantages of dipole in the upper bass, mid, and treble freqency, i.e., pristine accuracy, yet without the frequency integration problem associated with adding dynamic drivers for the lower bass, and the ELS/planer inherent setup difficulties, and their need for a vice to keep your head in a very narrow sweet spot, consider the open baffle designs: www.audioartistry.com, or www.linkwitzlab.com for a couple sources.

The AA 'Dvorak', for instance, only needs 100w for the main panels (2-10" mid, and tweeter), and 50w for the sub woofer pairs (2-12" also open baffle, in push-pull configuration).

All with an active crossover with equalizer capability for the woofers. Achieving seamless integration throughout, a wide and deep listening position, and ease of setup. With the active EQ/XO making them probalby the best speaker design extant for accuracy and 'true to the original' playback throughout their range capability.

Also room treatment devices are probably not called for, since the dipole drivers radiate off axis only about 30 degrees, as opposed to the 360 degrees of the enclosed cabinet designs. They tend not to excite those pesky low frequency room modes, which therefore do not need to be tamed with bulky, very expensive, and relatively ineffive devices.

The Dvorak in my 12+'x24' space are astonishingly accurate and 'live' like down to the lowest frequency the space is capable of: 24hz (565 divided by longest dimension, 24).