Magnepan has finally, after 12 years, improved its Magneplanar 1.6 speaker, the best sub-$2,000 speaker I'd heard in 2008. Here's hoping the new Magneplanar 1.7 sounds even better. Ex-movie theater ...
My friend who also has the 1.6s uses a Bryston amp to drive them. It works quite well, and all Bryston amps have a 20 year warranty, which is hard to beat.