best sounding integrated for under 2500.00

Grant Fidelity A-534B juiced up with premium black treasures and Psvane driver tubes all around. Complete with remote for less than your reference price. Superb performance!

Smooth sounding and warm...check out the Marantz integrateds.

Right in your budget, new or used, all well reviewed.

I just read through Stereophiles review of your speakers and they appear to like power and do have a nasty looking impedence curve as Pubil57 makes reference to. If yo must have an integrated then I would suggest buying the largest powered and best quality integrated you can afford. A 100wpc ss will do not better (unless it is a high quality integrated) in fact probably worse than the 80 wpc Cary as you will be overdriving the ss amp (Nasty). If you don't have to stay with an Integrated I would suggest seperates such as a conrad johnson ss amp (2500a/250wpc) combined with one of their tubed pre-amps (PV-12) as an example. That combination will provide the muscle to control your speakers along with the midrange and top end smoothness you desire.

I once drove a pair of Thiel 3.6's with a cj premier 11a (70wpc) tubed amp and it did a very nice job very smooth and detailed. Obviously not the last word on Bass but the mid to high end frequencies were beautiful. I then switched to a cj ss amp (2500a) along with one of their tubed pre's as I suggested above and the sound was excellent. Retained the tubed mid/ high frequencies but gained bass control from the high powered ss amp.

With a budget of 2500 you should be able to afford this combination (used of course). And I am sure you will be pleased with the results. The cj equipment will be of a much higher quality than the Yamaha or Marantz products.

Just my thoughts Good Luck.

Chuck

Chuck's last recommendation sounds like a very good one indeed. If you can pull of a tube pre/ SS amp combo at the price point it should help bring some tube qualities, while having enough current drive for your speakers. Assuming a good impedance match between the pre/amp - not always the case when using this type of tube/ss combo.

Sim Audio I-5, if you want solid state. Cary SLI-80, if you want tubes.