McCormack DNA 0.5.....less than 1K. Excellent drive and performance. In terms of integrated, there are very tempting choices at that price range, models from MF, Creek, but the perennial popular seems to be the Audio Refinement Complete for about $600 used or $1000 new. Another flat amp that is an old timer, but excellent nevertheless is the PA-7, the first version, which came out in 1988> a Nakamichi amp, heavy runs heavily into class A, about 200 watts based on a original Nelson Pass Design.
As the speaker is concern, what sort of set up are you looking for? If it is planar, you need a bear of an amp. If you can stretch it, you can get a DNA 225 for about 1.5 K used, world class sound and the power to drive almost anything. If you still want to keep the speakers around, I do not think they are necessarily dated. The SAE has never given the speaker much of a justice, in the way it can possibly sound. That is my take.
Another dynamic speaker recommendation would be a pair of Gershmans, a Canadian manufacturer that makes excellent cabinets. Their lowest priced monitor, the X-1, which by the way I imported from Canada when they were reviewed by Soundstage cost about $900 in Canada, if you buy in the US, about $1300-1400. Excellent sound, with a lovely fullness that does not mask detail. The X-1s have an accompanying subwoofer pair, that act as pedestals, they called the SW-1s....this cost USR about $1800? Both combined are outstanding for both music and HT duties. If you can import, they are sooo much more affordable.
Another great, I mean GREAT monitor speaker is the ProAc SC-1s that are small, cute, but the drivers are very well matched, high quality....will give you a full sound, around 1.2 K used, 2K newAnother speaker you might check into are MTM design speaker, two 6.5 drivers sandwiching a tweeter in between, usually floorstanding, efficient in their design. They give good bass and maybe suited for lower efficiency design amps, in which case, you might be free to invest in very hi quality low power amps.
Depending of how you approach it, whatever you decide to do will have repercussions for years to come.
I began with high power, high current, heavy amps, driving dynamic loudspeakers, I have both Gershman set up....very lovely the sound I got from them paired up with first the Nakamichi PA-7s (year 2000), then with Sonic Frontiers Power 2 amps (year 2001) then with the DNA 225 (year 2002-03) and also a pair of hybrid Blue Circle BC-2s in the meantime...but, back in September, I plugged my 300B amp (9 watts per channel) to run a pair of fullrange drivers in horn loaded cabinets. I loved this set up and the sound. Then, about 2 months ago, I got a 47 Labs Integrated Shigaraki amp with just 20 watts/channel. In my life swapping amps here and there, I have never heard such finesse and drive as from this integrated set up! I got limited to 3 source inputs, but it did not matter, the sound had all the power and volume of my previous set up in a compact package. To complete the lows, I bought a powered sub with a 15" driver and now, the sound is fullrange......
There are many ways of achieving the same sound, either by pairing inefficient speakers with large, powerful amps or pairing very efficient speakers with smaller, but more refined sounding amps. I still have my inefficient set up around, I love to keep that around to swap back and forth, when I feel like a change.
PS: Now, I replaced my integrated 47 Labs amp with a pair of battery powered preamp+amp combination from Final Laboratories. Now, I halved the power again....now just 10 watts, but what a glorious and grainfree 10 watts.
PAUL K
