Which integrated amp would you pick?

New Yamaha's are outstanding .

Krell Vanguard. As Dave B said high end sound and design with deals to be had. Very well built as well. FWIW

If you’re looking at SS, make sure power doubles exactly from 8 to 4 ohms. It’s pretty telling of the quality of the unit as a whole if it does (not many actually do). Beyond that, it’s taste.

Have a KAV300il, anthem 225i, parasound a21, and my Hegel H360 driving my ancient ultima salons. The krell was great til the amp section melted leaving me with a decent pre. The 225I had the juice and didn't sound bad just maybe sterile would be a word especially when compared to the a21 halo driven by the kav the parasound sounded just like the reviews, musical, fun with strong bass, smooth highs and a decent midrange, but there's more there and the H360 brings more out making concerts sound live and studio recordings will give you the room reverberation. System matching still makes the biggest difference, but the hegel and I auditioned the rost and the H190 also and they all made my system sing 

@joey54 .....thanks much for your response.  Helps a lot!  I had the Soloist 1 for a while, so I'm pretty sold on Belles.  I'm planning on using the Aria with the Treos.

Take care........

In my system, with my Harbeth's, the Hegel sounded dry and not very involving. The Ayre just didn't have the drive I was looking for. I really wanted to like the Ayre or the Hegel as they both have balanced inputs. I am also interested in the Ayre Codex which sounds much better via it's balanced outputs. 

The Aria mates really well with the Treo CT's that I heard at Audio Connection. The midrange was outstanding as was the bass. I had thought you would need something like the Aesthetix Atlas or a tube amplifier to get a midrange like that on the Vandy's. The best integrated I have heard on the Treo's is the Ayre AX-5 but at $13,000 it was out of my price range. The Belles punches way above it's price point. I can't recommend it highly enough. I would try to go hear it before you make up your mind. I love the amp but everyone hears things differently and only you can decide if it works for you in your system.

I have had a bad experience with Heed so I did not even consider the Obelisk.

joey54- Did you consider trying the Obelisk? It appears you were at Johnny R's ....?   (-:  -Don

Thanks joey54.  Your input certainly helps.  My sights are set on the Belles Aria with Vandersteen Treo.  How did it best the other integrateds in your experience?  What were your thoughts on it with the Vandersteen?

Appreciate any insight.  Regards.......

I would second the recommendation on the Belles Aria which I now own. I tried the Ayre AX-7E and the Hegel H160 in my system driving my Harbeth SHL5+ speakers and the Belles bested them both in my opinion.The Belles is rated at 75 watts per channel and may not have enough power for you but it drives my Harbeth's very well. I have heard it with the Ryan R610's, the Vandersteen Treo CT's and the Magnepan .7's and it drove them all very well.

Belles Aria, Simaudio 600i and Blue Circle 022i

Number one is love the amp. Number two is re-sale value. Number three is build quality. 

NAD C317, Rogue Cronus Magnum, Hegel H200 and now the Accuphase E-600. All great integrated amplifiers which I'm thankful to have owned, I hope the Accuphase is the last I ever buy.

Anyone heard the new Conrad Johnson (CJ) CA-150 or CA-150 SE ?

@gdhal , there is a Vitus RI-100 on the ’Gon right now with 50hrs. The guy is asking $8k, but you could probably bang that down to $7.5k. Still a stretch, but that would be a really nice upgrade.

I owned the Halo and was quite impressed. Again as stated, a swiss army knife of integrated amps. How some people say it sounded "bad" is beyond me but so be it. I did sell it to fund a Wyred 4 Sound ST500 integrated which I am extremely pleased with. I drive Magnepan .7's which like all maggies, love current. I owned one MuFi amp in the day, can't remember the model but very much enjoyed that amp as well. There are many good choices in your price range so features play a part too. I enjoyed the Yamaha 1000 series as well, not your Mom's box store Yamaha.

There are lots of class D enemies here for sure.
I'm not. I haven't heard Parasound Halo integrated, but I like Bel Canto class D integrated amp S300i

melbguy1, only one potential problem with your recommendation as compared to the MF M6si. It's four times the MSRP. So instead of spending $3,000 by all means have it your way and spend $12,000. :) 

Neither, i'd go for a Vitus RI-100 ;)

I purchased the Music Fidelity M6si and have paired with the Dynaudio Special 25,s connected via Tara labs The One speaker cable. The M6si is being fed thru a MacBook Pro with YBS USB cable with excellent results. Im a tweaker and have installed the SR Black fuses in the M6si ( 4 total ) which is a substantial upgrade like all the postings on the SR Black Fuses states I agree they are amazing. My house runs on an independent transformer from the main lines with fantastic sonic results on the M6si. My next tweak will be installing 10 ByBee filters, 6 off the secondary windings and 4 off the output signal to the speaker terminals.

I agree with the post above that the internal DAC is better then some are giving it credit for.

The M6si might not be the most revealing integrated out their but give it the proper set up and clean power and a few tweaks and it will surprise you on how good it is.

I have not listened to the Parasound, other choices in consideration were ,

Music Fidelity NV 800
Jeff Rowland
MBL
Vitus 
Pass Labs 60 & 150
DartZeel

At the end I chose the M6si for the simplicity of the one box solutions and didn't want to get caught up and the constant upgrade path that this hobby leads into. 

I haven't learned them on anywhere near the same type of equipment to compare. Try them both to see what's better.

I don't want to steal the thunder from the OP, but of course it's better to audition if you can. In this case, I have had a brief listen to the Obelisk and
also the Rega Brio. In my case, there is travel (6 hr minimum), and time involved in auditioning. In this price range, I'm thinking just give one a shot.

I have Coda at the moment, I don't own the Belles.  The outboard power supply does make sense.

Try both with your own ears ( not the press ) and perhaps you won't have to worry about resale.  I had a Soloist 1 and really enjoyed it.  Only reason I sold it was because I sold the Vandersteen 2s that went with it....too big for my room.  I'd like to get some Vandy 1s and the Belles Aria will be one integrated that I'll strongly consider.  Good luck!  Regards.......

timlub- Take a look. Plenty of reviews. I think the discrepancy in power is because the last iteration of the Obelisk (mk.2) had an optional outboard PS. With the PS, the power rating was 10-15 watts higher. Glad you are enjoying the Belles.

There is more press on the Heed than the Belles?  I've read 2 reviews on the Heed Integrated,  1 says that it is 35 watts and the other says that it is 40 watts,  the Heed website says that it is 50 watts and I can't find any 4 ohm ratings... 1 review says that it is a the bass is a bit shy and it is edgy at the extreme frequencies. The Obelisk Si is not DC coupled.  I haven't heard it, so I can't comment there,  It may be everything needed,  but I can tell you that the Belles is a joy. 

in this range a raven audio blackhawk or rogue cronus magnum ii with tube upgrades sounds much more transparent and dimensional than the halo.

Halo is overrated, IMHO. And yes; I've read all the reviews, but in my system,in my room, I was very much underwhelmed. I've just finished a search for a new SS integrated and ended up with  Wells Audio Majestic. At $3600, it may exceed your budget, but in terms of musicality, to my ears, the Wells is far superior. Just thought I'd
mention it as Wells seems to be relatively unknown or at least,
rarely mentioned, in these forums. 

Krelldog,

What did you get?

MF6 is discontinued. There is an M6si, which I’ve owned (purchased new) since December 2015. I highly recommend it. At the time and point of purchase I compared it to Krell Vanguard and McIntosh MA6700, both considerably more expensive. Realistically the Musical Fidelity is right on par with those integrated amps and for considerably less money too. To those who have indicated the DAC in the MF is somehow lacking, I disagree and consider the DAC more than adequate for audiophile grade performance. The aformentioned stated, I have no experience with the Parasound.

What's your moniker?  What dave_b said.  Good luck!  Regards.......

The halo is really nice sounding- could not find anything wrong that it did.  also class A stereophile.  sounds much better than a hegel h160 IMHO.  

Krell Vangaurd...Krelldog!  True high end sound...deals are available if you look around:)

Typically a lot of this stuff is A stock.  The dealer is not allowed to officially discount many of these brands, so by calling it B stock and saying it may be a demo(like there are 50 units of demos on Audio Advisor) or a return or the cardboard box got dinged up, or some other excuse, they are then allowed to sell brand new stuff at a discount.

I bought a Nad integrated that was listed as a "display" model, and it turned out to be BNIB.

You can get a b stock Parasound P5 and b stock A21 for around $3k from the dealers mentioned in this thread.  Which I think would be a lot better than their integrated amp.  But i wonder why there are so many b stock parasound units for sale?

The Hegel suggested earlier is twice the price of the two ther units, but the Hegel H80 fits right in, at $2000, or the H160 at $3500. Those are killer, will beat both MF and Parasound easily, and come with a great DAC (and the H160, a streamer too).



Disclaimer: dealer in San Diego, CA (http://almaaudio.com)

I have the Anthem 225i. I went to it from a Sonic Frontier pre and Monarchy mono-blocks.

It's a no frills unit but sounds good to me, plenty of power for anything I need to drive. I like the simplicity.

Have you looked into the Ayre units?   That would be my choice

Primaluna hands down. From entry level through the Dialogue HP 

I've owned the Parasound P5 and A23 separates.  They sound pretty decent.  I'm glad the P5 has bass and treble controls.  My speakers need a bit of EQ-ing.  I'd boost the bass up a bit and the treble down a bit.

I don't know about the Musical Fidelity stuff; I've never heard any.

Saying that...I used to have a Modwright KWI 200 integrated and a pair of Legacy Focus SE speakers.  It was an incredible system!  The KWI 200 has a huge amount of capacitance to handle the peaks.  It was a wonderfully smooth-sounding integrated.  Not harsh, not muddy.  I'd play it really loud and it would still sound nice and clear.  Bass would shake the room.

Try the new Rotel 1592 intergrated amp 200 watts per channel

Musical Fidelity for hifi and Parasound for home theater.. got the point ?

There are actually many so-called hi end (unreasonable expensive)amps that doesn't even come close to what Musical Fidelity or even QUAD could produce, sonically..

M6 is a good choice. And if cost is no object, try Naim or Sugden Masterclass amps and see what you've been missing. 


Listen to the music, not the name..

I couldn't remember the name of the store, but Mike and Dave were indeed a pleasure to deal with.  I also paid 2,200.00 for it, not 2,100.00 for it as I first stated.  I looked up the receipt to be sure.  It was the drive back to RI that made me decide to buy a new car.  I had a 09 Civic SI with the 6 speed manual and I was in a traffic jam on the Mass Pike 3 times!  Seems they were down to 1 lane on the bridges.  My leg was killing me from the stop & go traffic and  constantly using the clutch.  By the time I got home, it felt like my leg would fall off.  I bought a new car the very next day.

@Also bought mine at Safe & Sound in Chicopee, MA. Mike and Dave were a pleasure to deal with.

Halo all the way. Many of us will agree that we don't need that much current, but it's nice to have that kind of power on tap when we ask for it. Currently driving the LS50s. The wife gives a dirty look every time I reach a quarter of that volume knob.

Audio Advisor is a strong outlet for Parasound factory refurbs. http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PAHAINT&variation=SIL&gclid=Cj0KEQjwnv27BRCm...

I also really like the (recently discontinued?) Anthem Integrated 225   http://www.anthemav.com/products-current/model=i225/page=overview