Best used integrated for under $5000


All
I am in the process of building a new dedicated stereo system and looking for both speakers and an integrated. For speakers as of right now I am leannng towards either used Rockport Atria (if I can find one) or Focal Sopra 2 (if no Atria comes around in 6 months). 

I am am moving to NY in 6 weeks and therefore don’t really know what the room dimensions will be. 

Sound I like :

1. A tad bit warm while still having a lot of punch (nothing muddled about it)
2. Vocals (Diana Krall, John Mayer etc) have a level of cleanliness to it
3. Guitar (Gipsy kings, Jesse cook) sound airy without being lean
4. It may be related to my first point above; forgiving of average source (eg high quality Spotify streaming, which isn’t that high quality after all )

Most of my source will be Tidal and strong preference for integrated amps with a built in DAC. Even better if the unit has a streamer as well. Otherwise I am planning to use Google chrome cast (is that a bad idea). 

As of right now my list has Hegel h360, Lyngdorf and Moonaudio 340i. 

I am planning to buy used. That means new prices probably could be as high as $10000. 

It would be great to get some recommendations. 
marrduk24

Showing 4 responses by marrduk24

I was also looking at Alon Wolf’s  (Magico) interview and he feels Hegel is one of the best value in Hifi. 

I will look at Anthem too (and maybe Parasound Halo)
Thank you everyone. It’s never going to be an 100% agreement on what people recommend. But seems like I was going in the right direction with Hegel.

Hegel 360 is likely to be $3000-$3500 range for used vs $7000-$7500. I am pretty sure I don’t want to spend $7000 on Pass, mostly because I don’t think I have a nuanced enough hearing (vs a very nuanced pallete 😀). But may try that anyway.
@DEP14 - if you look at my last post on Rick’s forum you would see that I have listed three options I am still evaluating and will make a decision post finalizing all of the auditions
  - used speakers 
   - off the shelf designs by Salk or selah (two designs shortlisted from Salk and one from Selah)
   - going custom with Selah

challenge with 2 and 3 is not being able to audition. In the past 2 weeks I have auditioned so many well regarded speakers that I didn’t love (Paradigm 3F, Dynaudio Contour 60, KEF Ref 5, B&W 802 D3, PMC Twenty5.26, Focal Sopra 2) that it is very clear taste in music is highly personal. 
Thank you everyone.

Top two two contenders seem to be Hegel H360 and Luxman L590, followed by Accuphase and BAT. I will look into those two and may even try all 4.