Newbie Needs Assistance


I am getting back into "Audio". around 15 years ago I had an AV receiver driving some Kirksaeter Silverline 120’s. I still have the speakers but the amp is long gone. My wife and prefer tubes. Budget is 5 - 6K for amps and eventual speakers. I have researched out and come down to the following:

Eventual Replacement Speaker for Kirksaeter:

Salk Song Series

Focal Aria 926 - I have heard the Chora 826 but not these

Amp Options:

AVA Transcendence 10 RB and a Vision Set 120

Tsakaridis Aeolos Tube Integrated

Input will be BlueSound Node and eventually possibly a turntable.

I have not heard either of the amps but they both fit in as far as price point (2,000 - 2500) leaving me roughly 4k for speakers. Has anyone heard these amps or speakers? I forgot to add music we listen too. Everything from Sinatra, Dean Martin to Led Zeppelin and alternative rack and a lot of blues including B.B and SRV.

boots72

Thank you for the comments so far. My budget is pretty fixed unless I want to sleep on the couch. Any advice between the two amps. i know the Tsakaridis Aeolos might be a tough one to get opinions on. 

I definitely agree with a better DAC for the Bluesound. I found the internal DAC on the first three Nodes to be somewhat adequate,an external DAC made a substantial difference. 

@sns I’ve obviously got my head up my butt on this Raven thing.  What’d I miss?

You missed nothing. Except all the guys accustomed to head up butt even further up butt.

OP if you're serious about a fine tube system on a budget then it will take a while but order a Decware amp and ZP3 phono stage. The good news here is you only pay 10% deposit now and balance on shipping. Meantime get Tekton Double Impact and research turntables and cartridges.