best sounding integrated for under 2500.00

pubul57 what integrated do you think i should go for as you seem to know my psb stratus gold needs. my listening room is small but the psb seems to need power. i love a wide soundstage and cant stand the harshness of overbearing highs.

On reputation alone, I think the Plinius is likely to be a good way to go. The Portal Panache is another good candidate, I do think Nelson Pass designed the circuit, and nothing he designs sounds anything but good. Basically any integrated SS with 100 watts or more should up for consideration. What I would not do is go tubes with those speakers, and I only have used tubes with a few forays into Pass SS, so it is not that I am an SS guy, but if I loved the PSBs, and many do, I do think you have to go the SS route to make them sing and give you the bass they are capable of. The Ayre mentioned is great, but not enough power for those speaker at loud levels IMHO. Same with the NAIM mentioned, great amp, but you need some juice for those speakers.

pubul57 what integrated do you think i should go for as you seem to know my psb stratus gold needs. my listening room is small but the psb seems to need power. i love a wide soundstage and cant stand the harshness of overbearing highs.

The Portal is a really nice amp. I has at one time considered one, but for me no remote was a deal breaker. Also and you didn't mention if its important but it also does not have a phono stage.

Good point. Vik, do you need phono? If so, I'm thinking a MAC 6300 might do the trick if you can get one at the price point. Not sure about Plinius, but I think it does come with phono. Again, I think the SIM integrateds, in the power range, would have to be right up there with these. I'll say this, if you had a Plinius, MAC, or SIM within the 100-150 watts range, you could do a lot worse:)driving a pair of PSB Golds.