Onkyo A-9555. Competitive with the British integrateds. Warm, low noise floor, great low level detail combined with inner clarity, great speed and instantaneous high current delivery. Sounds like a budget Asian amp for the first 100 hours and then turns into something organic after it breaks in. Competitive at its list price of $799, but stupid cheap at its online street price of $450-475 available at http://www.jr.com or http://www.amazon.com. Can also be had for as low as $400 as B-stock with a more limited warranty from http://www.accessories4less.com.
I got mine primarily to propel an LP-based system and it works very well for that. The big surprise is how it brought digital playback alive as I hadn't heard at home before. Its low noise floor brings out low level detail that got buried in noisier electronics, bringing a more organic feel to digital sources.
Mine replaced a couple of semi-legendary power amps: the Amber Series 70 and the VSP Labs TransMOS 150, both high current power amps.
I got mine primarily to propel an LP-based system and it works very well for that. The big surprise is how it brought digital playback alive as I hadn't heard at home before. Its low noise floor brings out low level detail that got buried in noisier electronics, bringing a more organic feel to digital sources.
Mine replaced a couple of semi-legendary power amps: the Amber Series 70 and the VSP Labs TransMOS 150, both high current power amps.