I have a pair of Magnepan 1.7s and had run them with a Wyred 4 Sound STI-500. Unbelievable detail but over many months I became to dislike the very lean sound. I tried running a BADA Chinese tube preamplifier into the W4S STI-500 using it as just an amplifier. Much better results. The music took on a lifelike presentation with a much warmer and pleasing sound. It was an amazing difference.
Owning Magnepans for 30 years, I have found that if the amp is pretty good but lean sounding, a tubed preamp can solve the issues of warmth and three dimensional sound. This way, if you want to rock out, you can with a powerful solid state amp driven by a tubed preamp.
One thing that I have found with the Magnepan 1.7s is that you get amazing enjoyment out of the speakers at very low listening levels. Given a good DAC and clean sounding amplifier, the Magnepans sound terrific at low, medium and higher levels.
Magnepans are very unique where you get people saying they need enormous amounts of power while other say you only need a good 50 watt amp. Both are right in my experience. If, like me, you listen to a lot of acoustic music - classical, jazz and acoustic rock - I use less than 10 watts of power 90% of the time. So Magnepans do work with low power very well.
However, I notice as you turn the volume up, the Magnepans seem to absorb much more power to get just a little addition in volume levels. This is why I believe many Magnepan owners favor high to incredibly high power amplifiers. So based on how you like to listen to music you may be in the low, medium or high power amp range.
If you want to save money but have something that will provide a tube sound with 190 watts into 4 ohms, consider the BADA DC-225 hybrid integrated amp on Pacific Valve website. It is $1199 (less if you send a check).
If you are adventurous, take a look on the Cattylink website. I am considering the Bada Purer 3.3 or 3.8SE hybrid integrated amplifiers with more power just for those times you want to turn up the volume.
There are several other Chinese brands that offer hybrid integrated amps that would fit the needs of the Magnepans. Check out Shanling A300 integrated, as well.
Having lived with a BADA Amp and preamp in my system for several years I am quite happy with the sound and build quality. I had replaced the BADA combo with the W4S STI-500 for a year or two then sold the W4S and came back to the BADA combo.
