Looking for a high end integrated to suit Dynaudio contour 5.4's

Another dark horse to consider is the Rowland Continuum S2 which ticks atleast three of your boxes...prodigious power (800 watts @ 4 ohms), has a HT bypass option & is in your budget. Rowland amps only come in their ubiquitous face plate, but it looks good if you don’t mind a bit of bling. The only thing is it is a Class D amp, but Jeff has been doing Class D longer than anyone, so it has the familiar JRDG house sound. That said, there is no substitute for auditioning gear, as at the end of the day you have to like the sound.

@plbo2

hi hi from Perthie, so sorta local.

I have the the dynaudio confidence 5 and have run them with a variety of amps and integrateds

sticking to integrated amps

i had a LSA standard integrated which is a hybrid valve pre and s/s power. Great sounding amp very powerful. But I don’t think they are sold in OZ any more.

i did have a JR continuum s2 and can confirm they drove my c5 very well, very fast delicate/vibrant sound, suited them well. If it’s relevant to you the optional phono stage is very good.

i later sold that to buy my current Yamaha AS3000 which being class A/B has a different sound to the S2 , hard to say exactly has I never auditioned them together. Sound wise very strong solid sound that I have to be listenable for long periods - mids and highs in particular sound good. Lots of facilities on the as3000 and the phono stage is again good.

having said that I’ve just bought a Marantz sa10 SACD and I’m thinking of getting the matching pm10 integrated :-)

cheers

ps sources were technics sl1000mk2 with Ortofon a90 cartridge, Yamaha cds2100 SACD since October 2016 and now Marantz sa10 in the last couple of weeks. So still working on listening with that one. 

Thanks corks67,  more food for thought and further research required.

Cheers

Welcome , feel to pm if you want any more info. 

How about one of the bigger Mcintosh integrateds 79000 or similar?