Best Amp for under $2000.

Buy the Ayre V-3 and call it a day. On the used market for $1500+/-$100. There is no bigger steal in audio!! Retails for $3750-$3850. This amp is KILLER!!!

I have some experience here with my second true love-B&W. Got 801m sIII, 801m sII/Northcreek, 802 sIII, & 805. Don't even think that you will be realizing the potential of the sepeaks unless you put some massive power behind em! Forget all those light duty recomendations because you will follow the road to trade-up unless you buy heavy-duty. My amps? I found a pair of Lightstar Reference 2.0 NIB for $3600. eighty pounders that can pass household current. You want big transformers & caps inside for those dynamics. (MFSL Dark Side of The Moon). Others I'd love to try-KSA250s, ML 23.5, T800, CA400, Rowland 8T- OOPS wrong price range, what the hell you only live once and youre ears aren't getting younger. The only speak I'd give up a set for would be the puppies. On the 801 sII/Northcreek set I use C-J Prem. 5"s ah! life is good with B&W in front.

Belles 150A. Beats the McCormack DNA 1 on all fronts and costs less.

IF YOU HAVEN'T CONSIDERED THE MUSE MODEL 160($1,900.00 NEW)YOU'RE MISSING THE BOAT. COMPARE IT WITH THE BEST AND BE READY FOR A PLESANT SURPRISE. STEREOPHILE'S MICHAEL FREMER REVIEWED(VOL.20 NO.10). AND FOUND HE WAS "SUPRISED AND DELIGHTED BY THE TUBELIKE SHIMMERING LIQUIDITY" AND FURTHER COMMENTED "THE 160 CAN FIT COMFORTABLY INTO ANY EXISTING AUDIO SYSTEM". THE 160 EARNED A (CLASS B RECOMMENDED COMPONENT) RANKING BY STEREOPHILE.

"Best..." is a relative term; system compatibility is the ultimate goal. Another "best" might be a used Classe' DR-9 or DR-10 (sold as the Ten in script on the frontplate). They were very conservatively rated at 100wpc at 8 ohms. I've owned them with ribbons, planars, cones--big, medium, small and DRs sound excellent with all. They run $1000-1200 when you can find one. My final Classe' was the Ten (DR-10), that gave much satisfaction with various tubed preamps driving ribbons, planars, and lastly, the Avalon Arcus. The legendary DRs were designed by Dave Reich before leaving Classe' in the early 90s. Do not compare Reich's amps with later Classe's; in the opinion of many I have spoken with (myself included after auditioning later series, including the newest), they are "coarser" than the DRs. There are also a number of other excellent used and new pieces available, but take the time to audition in your system, at length. Your ears only are the final decision maker.