Integrateds: $3K, $4.5K or $5K

Simao, to my ears, the Job has tremendous "air" around instruments, and is very transparent. Its low noise floor brings out subtle nuances from deep in the soundstage. It has the warmest, most believable midrange and most articulate and tightest bass from any amplifier I've owned. It is easily superior to my EAR 890 and Dynaco ST-70 rebuild which are pretty amazing in their own right. There is a lengthy thread on the Job 225 here on A'gon contributed by very happy owners.

It was not my intention to derail the OP's thread, just to provide another option to the integrateds he was considering. If I posted a similar thread I would gladly welcome alternatives.

I heard one of the LSA integrateds at a friend's house a couple of years ago. It was ok, but didn't excite me too much. To each, his own. I guess that's why they make vanilla and chocolate.

Hey Devilboy, is this inside info on the JOB integrated? Their website just state a new preamp and mono amps. Don't get me wrong, I hope you are right, it would be a high value integrated sonics wise.

A friend told me he heard about Job releasing an integrated next year. I haven't been on the Job website in a while.

hegel's are awesome integrated's. They have the new ones that just replaced last years models so there are many being offered on the net. I personally went with Ayre last month and LOVE it. I feel it's more of everything. It's the most tube like, but with all the goodness of SS. The extremes are natural and extended. Having Proacs, I can hear the limits of an amps sound staging and I can tell if they image properly. The Ayre's do this better than any integrateds I've heard. Some will sound deeper, but it's not as accurate and teh Ayre does go that low.

That said, everyone else likes what they have best or they wouldn't have it. This is the most important thing about hi fi. We all hear differently. All amps will behave differently with different cables and speakers as well as front ends.

Based on your speakers, my ears liked the Ayre AX7, Hegel 200 and MF amps best. All were using AQ cables throughout the systems. All were Rock series I believe.

I have been a happy owner of the Hegel H300 for about 4 months. I won't give superlatives as there are many reviews on the web that do a good job of that. In the 12 months prior, I had owned a Levinson integrated, big Levinson power amp, Simaudio integrated, and VTL monos. In that time frame I have also listened to Bryston and Plinius integrateds. In the past I have also owned a couple McIntosh amps and some Audio Research gear. They all have been really good, but Hegel has been the first that has not made me want to look for the next one. Another I would recommend if you could find it is the Burmester 051.