Integrated amp for Eggleston Andra II

Well, I'll defer to Ejlif on the heat generated by the JC-1s, since I have never actually owned them. (I saw and heard them at a dealers, and they did not seem to run all that hot, (warmish yes), but then again, they were in a large air conditioned room, that probably did a better job of cooling than your typical living room would!)

My recommendation then would be to find a good pair of Class AB amps, that aren't heavily biased in Class A (as the JC-1s, or my Lamm M2.1s are). I am not a big fan of the Class D amplifiers myself, but I will admit that they do run very cool. (I heard the Nuforce ref. 9's, and they don't sound all that great, IMHO. However, perhaps the Bel Canto ones suggested by Ejlif are better.) I would definitely audition them prior to purchasing them though.

a quick note on Kurt's initial response to the thread- "...The tubed preamp should not run that hot..". I have owned the Sonic Frontiers Line 3 preamp for 5+ years, and I beg to differ on the heat output- it does put out a lot of heat.

Check out the big MF integrateds. I use a Nuvista M3 which runs quite cool, I leave it on all the time. The TriVista, 500 and 550 are even more powerful but mine is rated at 275 and actually does above 300. Because of MFs bizarre marketing strategy the amps are available at very good prices.

I had a Krell FPB600 and it was excellent with the Andra. I decided to keep only 1 amp and sold it. In hindsight it was a big mistake.

To get the best sound from the Krell, I had to leave it on 24/7 so it gets very hot just in idle. ... and yes the SF Line 3 gets very hot too with 12 tubes. I guess my problem is I don't want to sacrifice anything going to a SS integrated so maybe I should just crank up the AC in the summer :-)

My biggest concern using an integrated is the lack of current to drive the Andra so I will expand my search to SS mono amps too.

I don't like the sound of Class D amps either ... but will check out MF.

Thanks for all the imputs.

I think you are on the right track, by not going with the integrated. First off, like you said , you will lose all the magic not having at least your tube line stage in the chain. Secondly, the Andra 2's IMO like alot of power. For that reason, I know longer own them. That said, thay are a very good speaker IMO. I bet one of the Accuphase amps may sound quite good w/ them. I thought the A50V had alot of power too, and can be had for around 6K used. I did not try the A50 on the Andra's though. The Pass XA100.5 may be a great match, but expensive. You didn't mention a price range, so there are alot of options.