Herb only reviewed the matching integrated, the Marantz Model 30, but said this of the Magnepan pairing…
“ Driving Maggies
I’d been enjoying the Marantz Model 30 with every speaker I tried, including the 15 ohm Falcons, but with the $1400/pair Magnepan .7 quasi-ribbon panel speakers, my heart started pounding in my chest and heart emojis spewed forth into the room. The Model 30’s Hypex-based amplifier seemed to come alive with the 4 ohm Magnepan load. Stravinsky Conducts Histoire Du Soldat Suite (LP, Columbia MS 7093), traced by the humble Zu Denon moving coil, had me laughing, muttering “oh my God,” shaking my head, thinking, if this is how an approximately $6k hi-fi sounds, who needs more?
The Maggie-Marantz combo made sound images that were tall and precisely mapped. It was pure stay-up-late pleasure to gaze into their holographic enticements. Listening to Neil Young’s soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s film Dead Man (16/44.1 FLAC, Vapor Records/Qobuz), the Marantz Model 30 powering the .7 Magnepan panels took me further and more clearly into the dark campfire conversations of William Blake (Johnny Depp) and Nobody (Gary Farmer) than I had ever been before. The Marantz and Maggie .7 combo pulled out shovelsful of previously hidden subtleties.
I believe you’d have to spend at least $10k more to beat the LSD detail, CinemaScope soundstage, Technicolor tone, and nuanced dynamics of the Marantz integrated driving the .7 Magnepans.
The Marantz Model 30 is clearly a speaker-friendly amplifier.“