$10K budget. Help

I agree on wanting tube or SS. Things have changed. I was a tube guy for most of my life and once I heard the Ayre integrated's, I realized that it doesn't matter as long as it sounds the way I want it to. Honestly, wanting your phono to be part of the ingrated will really cut down on your choices. You get separate power supply's by separating them and you don't have the electronic interactions inside the case. You can get a nice phono for not too much money.

Does your room sound best with a monitor? What type of music? Listening levels? Do you listen only to LP's or do you need digital? A server based or streaming or CD based? As a thread like this usually does is gets most of s to list what we personally own or want to own, however great products don't always work well together as a system. Do you have a dealer near you? What state are you in?

What will the 10k go towards? Integrated, phono and speakers (and also cables)?

I love the Ayre AX7e for that price range. It's got the best of both tube and SS worlds. Inky black, ultra low noise floor for best detail retrieval. It's got pace and rhythem and it's bass is outstanding. They are meant to be run balanced and not single ended to sound it's best. I ran my Basis TT though that and a pair of Vandersteen Treo's and it was awesome. I just upgraded to an Ayre AX5/Twenty (best amps I've heard other than the ref Twenty mono blocks from Ayre. I had my AX7e as well as my new AX5 Twenty in a wilson dealer who sells Mac too. The Ayre's both just blew away the MAC (their tip of the line separates. Have also heard it one on on vs AR gear and Aesthetix gear and it was awesome. I did love the AR gear, but it's very expensive. I don't love the AR integrated amps as much as their ref gear. Rogue and Quicksilver are awesome tube gear that are very reliable and affordable if you have to have tube gear.

Speakers are all over the place IRT monitors. Wouldn't you want a full range speaker? As long as you have a small footprint it will take up the same amount of space as a stand mounted monitor. I was going to go the monitor route last year, but ended up with Vandersteen Treo's and have never regretted a second. I get emerged into the sound even when listening/watching TV. They disappear as well as most monitors and are full range (well down to mid 30's quality wise).

I too listen to vocals, jazz and rock. Now that I have a fuller range speaker, I listen to Orchestral too. Never did before. If you are open, I'd think about a floor stander, but that's just me. If your room is smaller go with the Vandersteen 3a sigs as you can dial in the powered integral subs.

Z, where do you live? My sister is in Lido Key and mom lives in Venice. I get down there a bit and have never seen a high end store on the west coast. Are there any? Thanks.

Guys, thanks so much. I will need to keep this thread handy when I go down to visit. Always looking to hear things I don't get to hear at home. I've found some great stuff this way in the past. That's one way that I've gotten my recent system.

It's been hard for me to wrap my head around the home based dealer thing. How do you find folks? I've always felt strange going to folks home to listen to gear. I've done it twice and had great experiences, but it's just different for me I guess, lol.

Z, thats too funny.