Mid life crisis yields open check from the wife.

There are so many good monitor speakers and integrated amps in that price range that it would be hard to know where to begin. I'd say you haven't tried tubes before, give it a try.
You're wife is certainly being nice, especially considering that the money is being spent on audio gear. It's not the usual story you hear on these forums.
Maybe being straight and an audio gut isn't that bad after all!

Rogue pharoah

Among monitor speakers, although I haven't heard it, based on experiences that have been reported here by members whose opinions I particularly respect I would suggest that you consider the Coincident Triumph Extreme II ($4K including stands, new). I say this despite the comments that were provided in the initial response to your other similar thread.

Its fairly high efficiency, high power handling capability, and benign impedance characteristics should provide you with many suitable choices regarding amplification.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Why do you have this same thread posted twice? You may want to try and close one and just use a single thread if you can. Much easier.

Thanks for the responses, let me clear a few thing up.
First off, I didn't mean to duplicate my post, what happened was, that usually Audiogon posts new threads fairly quickly(1-3 hours) after about 5 hours of waiting on this thread to post, I figured that I did something wrong. So I posted again. I would have deleted the second post had I been able to figure out how. Almarg, How do I delete a new thread? Sorry my bad.
Second, my sources are Pioneer Elite DV-09 as my CDP.
Ipod through a Wadia transport>Music fidelity dac. And, I just picked up my first TT in 35 years. Pro-ject RPM1 with a Ortofon 2M Blue cart.

Almarg, How do I delete a new thread?

It wasn't me who suggested that you do so.

Also, I suspect that the only way in which that can be done, at least once others have posted responses, is to email the moderators (via the Help menu at the top of the home page) and ask them to either delete one of the threads, or possibly to merge the two.

Regards,
-- Al

I have Monitor Audio PL200 (had Silver 5i, RX6, and GX200) and find them to be a fantastic product. That said, I have also been recently impressed with the Focal Aria floor standers.

If the Mac has a pre out, you could keep it (use as a pre, of course) and buy a used Pass X250 or X150.5 and have a KILLER set-up, under-budget.

How about a devialet integrated amp? There's a bunch of them on here right now at very good prices and pretty much considered world class by many.

That's a good idea Jax.

I posted my response on the other thread. I assumed it was something like that. Just hard to follow when there are two going, lol.

Have you considered pro active monitors?

Dynaudio C1 mark II or newer

Sources are weak points. Buy more music.