It's been a while since I received my LRS's, and for quite a number of months I was powering them with a 20-ish year old Onkyo AV receiver that I bought off of a Craigslist ad many years ago.
Compared to the just-as-old Infinity bookshelf speakers that I was listening to prior to the LRS's, it was a whole new realm of listening bliss with the Maggies. Still, I knew there were more gains to be had with something better than my old Onkyo, but economics and sensibility dictated that I wait and study a bit about what I really thought would work well with the Maggies before just buying "something."
Step one was to get a sound pressure app (dB) for my phone and figure out just how loud I would ever expect to listen to music in my room, at the distance I have my comfy Adirondack chairs. The measuring tape told me that's approximately 9 feet from the speakers, and the sound pressure app told me that the max comfort level for me is in the upper 80's dBs.
Knowing that the LRS efficiency specs are a little wonky 86db @ 2.83V, instead of the typical @1W figures most manufactures use, I used 83db as the efficiency. This corrects for Magnepan's "specsmanship".
Also the LRS's impedance curve is essentially flat, but flat at a level that's just barely under 4 Ohms.
From there it was a simply plug-n-chug exercise in the Crown Audio calculator to figure out that something roughly 75W range gets me all the power I need. That's far less power than most recommend, but trusting math, I believe that that level will be fine. If it proves not to be, then I'll start a new search for something else with more power later.
I knew I wanted Class D for many reasons, so I started looking for things that fit the bill. There are tons of options, from inexpensive to just flat out stupidly priced, and all points in between.
Let's play a little follow along. I wanted an amp that is Class D, has low distortion, a reasonably flat frequency response, and can produce 75W at 4 Ohms of clean power... Any guesses at what I bought?... If you guessed the Aiyima A07, you're right on target.
This little amp rocks, and I mean that! For a paltry $80 it completely meets 100% of my requirements. If I had a bigger room (mine is 16' by 19'), sat further away than 9 feet, listened at louder levels than high 80's dBs, this little amp might falter. But I don't, and neither does it. I'm beyond happy with it!
Coupled with a MiniDSP 2x4HD that I bought to serve as a DAC, EQ, and to aid in subwoofer integration (a Klipsch that got on sale), I've got a moderately low buck system that positively amazes me with every single listen.
So, when looking for amps don't overlook "the little ones" because sometimes they might just be what fits the bill.
