Intergrated amp for Totem Sttaf

Thanks a lot to all of nice folks here :) My budget is around $1000 for a used one. The Sim I-5 is nice but over my budget. I am thinking about the Naim Nait 5i to match with my CDP, but I heard that I have to leave the power on all the time, and I have to buy their speaker cables at least 2.5 meter long to run with the amp make me think twice about it. The tube amps are nice too, but, I see alot of folks here recommended a lot of tube amps that make me confuse.

I'd recommend the Simaudio i-3. You should be able to find one well under your budget. I owned one and used it with Totem Arros, but also listened briefly to it powering Sttafs. I thought they complimented each other nicely.

The Sttaf is a very good rounder in the Totem family recommended by Vince B. and HT magazine. Sttaf are 8 ohm floorstanders so they are easy to drive and not that finicky as the Mani 2, Model 1, or Rainmaker in terms of amplification, be that tube or solid state.

Vince B. has said to me that Naim and Sim complement Sttaff very well. He has also recommended Plinius to me when asked. I don't know much about Naim but a decent Sim or Plinius integrated amp will do your Sttaf justice.

Enjoy

Lamcam,

FYI, Classe 151 is also a great solid state integrated that you can get in the used market on Audiogon for less than $1K. Classe 151 should have enough juice to help your Sttaf really sing.

Tube amps sound great. The down side is that it takes a few minutes to warm up the amps before you can extract the most out of the tube amps. To me, tube makes you pay more than you should to SCE.

Good luck with your search.