Best integrated amp for imaging/soundstage at $1K?

Listened at length to the Jolida 1301 hybrid integrated and it is very good with stock Chinese tubes. Imagine hardwiring a PC and rolling the tubes. Antique Sound Labs also has great integrateds. Audio Refinement very good.

Listening to the KandyIII as I type this. The amp has been in my system for nearly a year. It replaced the Audio Refinement Complete you also mention. It sounds wonderful to me and has many features I find useful including remote, headphone out, and phono input. There are many fine integrateds out there and the Roksan ranks with the best in its price range. Good luck.

Buy a used Classe Integrated: Cap-100, 101, 150, or 151.

Densen B-100, if you can find one. A true minimalist solid state design, with what has been described as a tube-like treble. They have been discontinued and will shortly be replaced by a new model.

I'm not selling it nor know the owner but there is a Classe CAP-100 that just went up for sale.
That's what I would buy.
I can't believe it will be around for long.
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?intatran&1124001287

The blue circle CS meets your requirments.
It is an amazing amp for the money.
Check out some of the reviews on it.
Very, very, nice sounding.

www.bluecircle.com

Walt Stagner on audiogon is a dealer and has a demo model for $1000 or less. Send him and email.

Cheers,
Nick

Ditto on the CAP-100 recommendation. I sold mine last year for $750, though, so the one currently listed seemed priced a little high, even from orig. owner.

I've owned several Classe pieces, incl. more expensive separates. By itself, the 100 is a good value but not a giant-killer. The amp section is far superior to the preamp section; using a separate preamp -- a CJ tube-pre, for example -- with the 100's fine amp section takes the CAP-100 into a higher realm.

What about the Krell 300 and 400?