An absolutely fantastic affordable preamp is the old Forte' Model 2 designed by Nelson Pass and produced in 1988. You can still find nice examples on Audiogon from time to time for around $350. It is by far the best bang for the buck in affordable preamps. It even possesses a great phono stage with dip switch adjustable capacitance and loading for your favorite cartridge. It originally retailed for $890 but had wonderful build quality. It had the same Noble Potentiometer for volume control as the more than twice the price Threshold Fet10. The only compromise was the use of integrated circuits instead of discrete transistors but it sounded great anyways. See the preamp section for a review. It is a popular cult item amongst Audiogon members. I used one for ten years and eventually upgraded mostly due to curiosity. I thought it compared very favorably to some very highly regarded preamps including the Threshold Fet 10, the Classe'DR5 and the PSE HL-1, all of which were more than twice the price at original retail.

jimburger August 01, 2005 23:32

I would advise getting a single good high current amp for the 1.6. I used 1.6's as my main speaker for three years. I auditioned it with PSE Studio V monoblocks which are a medium power high current set at 120wpc @8ohms or 230wpc @4ohms. I was impressed enough to fall in love with the Maggie sound. With the PSE powering the 1.6, the 1.6 actually matched the low frequency performance of the Vandersteen 2CE which on paper should be the better of the two. The 1.6 outpointed the 2CE on midrange transparency exhibiting a more see-through and palpable presentation. The 2CE was perhaps a bit more accurate tonally but with the PSE powering it, the 1.6 was truly magical.

I already owned a Classe'25 which I still use(successfully) with my current main speakers (3.6R). The 1.6's really sang with the Classe's 500wpc @4ohms. Possessing a much larger transformer and power supply than the two PSE's combined which resulted in twice the available power, the 1.6's were even better when I got them home. They were more dynamic and have an even smoother top end than the PSE. Only the lure of the legend of the 3.6 caused me to upgrade my speaker system, not disatisfaction with the 1.6's performance.

A friend of mine brought over a BEL 1001MkV that performed magnificently on my 3.6's with only 100wpc @ohms. Bass performance with the BEL was outstanding, perhaps exceeding the Classe' in power and extension. And exhibited an exquisite midrange to boot.

So I believe that a good single high current amplifier will do you just fine if it is a good design. SS amps that perform as a near voltage source(ones that double or nearly double successively into lower impedance loads like the KSA series Krells, DR series and numbered series Classe' amps of the early 90's like the model Fifteen or Twenty-Five, the late 80's Threshold S series, or the BEL 1001 amps of any iteration) would do nicely for 1.6's. With a great amp, I believe the 1.6 will play the tune even without exotic modifications to the crossovers or bypassing of the fuses. So my advice is to buy one outstanding used higher end amplifier rather than two entry level amplifiers from manufacturers like Adcom, NAD, or Rotel.

jimburger August 01, 2005 06:00