Solid State amp for Europas

the yamaha a-s700 is a return to form for a legendary company. full function, dynamic, smooth, and priced well below the european competion. a few bucks (new) over your budget, but a great value (investment). the europas will spring to life for sure.

Edge M-4 or M-6 if you can find one. Give GMA a call and they can suggest some others.

Ok, here it is and I hope you are open minded.

Applied Research Technology (ART) SLA 1 or SLA 2 amp. They cost $150 - $220 new on Ebay and are used in recording houses. Hard to do better for under $1500 to be frank.

If you are open minded, then just buy one and put good footers under it and a decent power cord. Take off the cover and unplug the small fan as it not needed.

This will bring you joy and your wife.

It has both xrl and 1/4" outputs. I use 1/4" to RCA adapters from Radio Shack and they work and sound great.

Turn the right and left volume knobs all the way up to take them out of the circuit and use your current preamp. Or use it as an integrated amp with L and R volume.

Purchase a Blue Jeans RCA IC for under $30 and you will have a killer system for very little cash. I speak the truth and am confident you will like the amp.

Have fun!

Besides the recommendations made by other members above, I would also recommend a vintage Yamaha integrated amplifier like the CA-2010, CA-1010 or CA-1000. From my personal experience, these are excellent amps & since the Europas are a benign 6-Ohm load, the vintage Yamahas should handle that quite well. There amps can be restored to full spec.

SPeaking to Roy over the past years, I also remember him recommending vintage Onkyo & Marantz amps.
Roy also likes Atmasphere amps but they are not s.s.
Another choice is the Canadian Blue Circle amps - they have several s.s. choices amongst their tube offerings.