integrated or separates...on a $1200 price point?

I just picked up a Musical Fidelity A5 for $1400 . So a little over your budget but 250w/ch! I think you could find an A3.5 or A3 at 150w/ch and be pretty well off.

Exposure

Plinius

I second Brian27b

Without knowing how loud you play your music and how big your listening room is ... have you considered a tube integrated, like the Prima Luna Prologue One?

Rich

Look into the Bel Canto eVo2i. Very nice full featured integrated amp with great reviews.

You can actually get a good powerful amp & quality pre at $1200, but then you'll need another PC & another set of IC's. That's something to be considered, although those can be had for a bargain too.

It can be done but you'll have to do some homework.

Anthem integrated!

room size is about 14x12, 8 foot ceiling. Its in the basement and two walls are concrete foundation. When it comes to volume, I like it kind of loud, typically working while listening to the dial set from 9 to 11 o'clock. Power cord and decent ICs will have to come later. Right now I use audioquest G snakes, and I might be able to swing a couple hospital grade outlets and Jewel power cords from PS Audio. The changer is just as old and under-performing as my Yamaha amp, but one thing at a time.

The Plinius is gorgeous. Looks are important to me at this price point, but it would be nice to have power-amp-in jacks so I can buy a really nice pre-amp in a few years. The Anthem 225 gets good reviews but falls short on looks - though I do like having balanced inputs.
Its curious to me no one has voted in favor of the Creek or the Parasound gear. I thought for sure there would be some fans out there.

i think all of these are nice. i'm a creek fan, but acknowledge that depending one's tastes, they might prefer the plinius or exposure. i wouldn't classify the NAD in the same stead, but then again, i haven't heard the latest generation stuff (ie, i'm an old timer and haven't heard NAD gear in close to 10 years! ;)).

Also noticed recently that Parasound Classic 2100 pre amp has bass management built in - which is nice because I run a 2.1 system, I would not have to buy a separate BMC! I could high-pass the B&Ws. BUT the Classic series is kind of ugly.

New I would go integrated.

Used I would go separates but be prepared to be patient and spend a lot of time checking here and ebay for good deals.

Mark

Thanks for all the advice. I am still saving up, I don't know how long I can last before I pull the trigger on some new equipment.

I picked up a B&K Reference 5 s2 pre for $400.00, used and a B&K Reference 200.2 s2 amp for $650 used. I think it works quite well with my Paradigms, but don't know how it would do with the B&W, but I imagine it would be pretty good.

The DK integrated are a hybrid and give you the solid state slam with a tube preamp built into one package. A great bargain used.

Separates give you flexibility in mixing and matching while integrateds give you simplicity and convenience in a one-box. The main advantage of separates is when huge power-hungry speakers are used and huge amount of power is required to drive these speakers. That is where massive and heavy power amps and monoblocks come into the equation. If your speakers are efficient and relatively easy to drive, I would say integrateds are the way to go. There are many good quality integrateds these days that can give you comparable if not better performance compared to separates.

With the B&W 685, I would think that a good integrated might fit your needs better if simplicity of a one-box is important to you. Not only you save space for an additional piece of equipment in the preamp but you save on an additional pair of interconnect and power cord.

Adcom GFP 750 pre-amp and a Musical Fidelity A3cr dual mono amp. Both Stereophile class A at one time (I'm 90% sure). Used you should be able to come close to $1200.

Consider Yamaha A-S1000 or a used A-S2000.  Really refined and with exceptional build quality.  I used to have a Musical Fidelity A3.5.  It was not bad sounding but the parts quality was mediocre at best.  Jamicon caps and such.

As it's been almost 6 years since the OP asked for suggestions, I wonder if he is still looking?

OP probably isn't looking any longer but others are. Anybody with B&W speakers looking for an integrated in the ~$1200 range should listen to the Arcam FMJ A19. Fabulous amp. I've enjoyed mine for the past couple of years. It drives my B&W 683 S2s with ease and sounds fantastic. Fifty watts of brawn and refinement!

Cheers,

Scott

Any one of the new Jolida integrateds (especially factory upgraded, and perhaps KT150 capable)…remote…tubes…fun…WAY less expensive than logic would seem to imply.