Preamp or Amp?

The reason you probably didn't get much response is that its tough to do short of writing a book. So much depends on something very personal to you...What do you really want to get out of your system and how good are your listening skills. By way of example.....

I've have a good system, good listening skills, and reasonable expectations and am quite satisfied with the components I use, all seperates, because of the flexibility it allows me, as well as the quality of their sound and the synergy they create. I recently purchased an inexpensive, medium powered tube integrated, thats sort of idiot proof but can easily be voiced by tube rolling, and when I'm not listening very carefully I don't know what I'm missing, and for a more casual listener I quite confident they might actually prefer this little integrated.

You have mentioned the "sonic signature" of the Polks. For those of us who haven't owned them, or listened to them extensively in our own rooms, what exactly is their "sonic signature". When you can answer that question without describing your electronics or the room you are hearing the speakers in or their set up, or conversely describing all of those things exactly, we have a starting point.

Perhaps you could re-think your question and rephrase it so that specific answers are possible. Folks here usually chomp at the bit to give advise............

The LSi's are very detailed yet also very warm. SMOOTH is the best word I could use to describe them. Much much smoother then the B&W's, Totems and Paradigm's I've heard. Higher frequency's simply seem to float through the air.

I've owned and/or demo'ed 6 or 7 SS amps and 7 or 8 SS and tube preamps in the last 4 years.

My experience is that for the most part, preamps with a decent or better reputation are for more similar than they are different. Aside from a couple that were simply way too subdued regarding detail and resolution.

My experience is also that for the most part, amplifiers of a decent or better reputation are much less similar in characteristics. In addition, there appear to be far greater compromises with amps. For example, one amp may have an almost sweet presentation with excellent transient speed, yet severely lacking in the lower bass regions where the bass was ill-defined and compressed (it was a Sim Audio product). Or another amp that had pretty good bass definition (still far from the best) but was out to lunch in the upper frequencies.

To find an amp that does it all is rare, but they do exist.

Therefore, I'd focus on the amp first and foremost. Over the preamp and every other component, speaker, cable, or room.

If you intend to stay in your current budget, I'd highly recommend researching a used McCormack DNA 0.5 or the DNA 0.5 revision A amplifiers and perhaps a used Pass Labs X 2.5 preamp.

To the best of my knowledge, there are very few amps that can even begin to approach the sonics of this little amp.

But there are also a few very good integrated amps. For example, supposedly the Audio Refinement Complete is quite inexpensive and very first rate.

-IMO