Good morning! For those of you in the path of this weekend's massive storm, hope you are all doing well. When I wasn't outside in the storm snowshoeing, I listened to a lot of Chick Corea trios and a Jorma Kaukonen live CD recorded at the Bottom Line, in 2003 . Thanks to everyone for your insights and advice. You are giving me a lot to think about, integrated amps to research, and listen to, if I seriously pursue a system make-over.
Something a number of posters have mentioned is the weight of a tube or transistor-big iron transformers weighs as much, or more than my 50 lb ARC amp. Great point!
And then there are the posters recommending Class D amps. My visceral response is, "You mean I have to give up my glorious tube -based sound?!!!!" Something I'm also noticing about Class D amps is lotsa power! My ProAc speakers are likely end-game, and sound glorious with anywhere between 40-75 W. So, unless I win the lottery and buy a house with a 700+ sq foot listening room, my system isn't power hungry.
So, in the immediate future I'm making the following change--I'm getting a new audio stand/cabinet on wheels. When I want to doing any maintenance on my kit being able to move the cabinet will make moving the separates in and out of the shelves easier/safer.