Smooth, liquid midrange, late night jazz, and soft beautiful vocals? Who is this lovely lady? Except for the occasional boogie session, I'd say your criteria pretty well matches mine.
A good looking $2500 system may be tough, but I think Bombaywalla has offered up a pretty good rig.
I think a tube amp with a passive pre or an integrated might work for you. Last summer I compared four preamps two of them being passive - the ASL T1 DT and Luminous Audio AXIOM. I thought the AXIOM got out of the way much better than the ASL which in comparison sounded cloudy to me and the AXIOM is only $125!
How about a Luminous Audio AXIOM passive preamp mated to a $900[used] Rogue 88 tube amp? Ahh, but cool looking, eh? I'm not sure if you'll find the Rogue nice to look at. Personally I don't. But if you do, they make a nice tube integrated you might find used for around $1200.
Maybe you should check out the Unison Research stuff? They have a great integrated in the Unico which uses a hybrid tube input /SS output design. A nice classy box for about $1000 used.
I've owned the Simaudio Moon I-5 and Electrocompaniet ECI-3 integrateds. Both are very cool looking and around $1000-1500, but I don't think they'll give the liquid mids you're in search of.
I know they're just metal boxes similar to everyone else's but I think Anthem has sculpted their enclosures in a very classy way. You could probably find an Anthem Amp1 for around $500 and they also have an integrated too.
Although they appear a bit Spartan, Jolida makes fine, affordable equipment.
You have lot's of options my friend!
Then, you have speakers.
While I've never heard them, it seems the GMA Europas have a strong following, and they're cheap too! I'm a ProAc person, but the Europas are hard to pass up at their price.
Make sure you leave some room for interconnects and speaker cables, and possibly powercords. Going with an integrated would mean one less interconnect pair. Go cheap with cables for now. I'm sure you'll get good recommendations from other members regarding affordable cables. I'm a big fan of Acoustic Zen and Audience, so I'd look into their less expensive offerings. Virtual Dynamics entry level powercords such as the Basic and Power 3 are great cords.
Good luck and in no time you'll be enjoying the sensual cooing of a lovely voice late into the evening.
A good looking $2500 system may be tough, but I think Bombaywalla has offered up a pretty good rig.
I think a tube amp with a passive pre or an integrated might work for you. Last summer I compared four preamps two of them being passive - the ASL T1 DT and Luminous Audio AXIOM. I thought the AXIOM got out of the way much better than the ASL which in comparison sounded cloudy to me and the AXIOM is only $125!
How about a Luminous Audio AXIOM passive preamp mated to a $900[used] Rogue 88 tube amp? Ahh, but cool looking, eh? I'm not sure if you'll find the Rogue nice to look at. Personally I don't. But if you do, they make a nice tube integrated you might find used for around $1200.
Maybe you should check out the Unison Research stuff? They have a great integrated in the Unico which uses a hybrid tube input /SS output design. A nice classy box for about $1000 used.
I've owned the Simaudio Moon I-5 and Electrocompaniet ECI-3 integrateds. Both are very cool looking and around $1000-1500, but I don't think they'll give the liquid mids you're in search of.
I know they're just metal boxes similar to everyone else's but I think Anthem has sculpted their enclosures in a very classy way. You could probably find an Anthem Amp1 for around $500 and they also have an integrated too.
Although they appear a bit Spartan, Jolida makes fine, affordable equipment.
You have lot's of options my friend!
Then, you have speakers.
While I've never heard them, it seems the GMA Europas have a strong following, and they're cheap too! I'm a ProAc person, but the Europas are hard to pass up at their price.
Make sure you leave some room for interconnects and speaker cables, and possibly powercords. Going with an integrated would mean one less interconnect pair. Go cheap with cables for now. I'm sure you'll get good recommendations from other members regarding affordable cables. I'm a big fan of Acoustic Zen and Audience, so I'd look into their less expensive offerings. Virtual Dynamics entry level powercords such as the Basic and Power 3 are great cords.
Good luck and in no time you'll be enjoying the sensual cooing of a lovely voice late into the evening.