Sorry, I can't help. I too find Stereophiles position of apples to oranges strange. Stereophile claims to be a source of help to audiophiles and yet they don't seem to appreciate the fact that an audiophiles budget regarding these components comes from the same money tree towards the same recipe.
Integrated amps and stereophile ratings confusion?
I've been looking to upgrade my tube integrated amp to a receiver as i listen more radio than cd's, and also need more power. Magnum Dynalab 208 is the perfect candidate. I even found Stereophile issue where this amp was reviewed. Upon further research i also found out that the Magnum Dynalab receiver, which is based an older, cheaper Simaudio integreated gets Class A, while the MUCH improved I-5 gets class B? I would like to hear from both Sim-audio I-5 owners and MD208. Thanks!