Vandersteen 1C - Best Integrated For Vinyl Lovers?

My apologies for not giving a bit more details about the setup. It's certainly nothing fancy - the Rotel has an Ortofon cartridge, and it's just a run of the mill Sony SACD player. Speaker wire is typical 12-gauge. Doesn't seem like this gear would make vinyl sound "underpowered", though.

The Nakamichi is supposed to be about 40 wpc. Loudest levels for vinyl for me would be at about 11 o' clock. Trust me, I don't like ear bleeding levels. Room size is about 11' X 15', and I have to put the Vandersteens on the shorter side - they're probably about 8 feet apart.

I do have JM Lab Chorus 725 speakers in another room (which have three 6.5" woofers a piece), so I could try them with the Nakamichi to see if they provide something in the bass department that the Vandersteen's don't when listening to LP's. Although the JM Lab cost roughly twice as much, I just love the phase/time coherence of the Vandersteens, and that's why I want to keep my turntable matched up with them.

Whatever integrated anyone may suggest, I would defintely want it to have the phono stage already built in.

You might get more bang for your buck by taking your 1000$ and getting a better turntable and cartrige and hanging on to the Nak for a while. A grand should get you something like a Rega p25 w/ a nice mm cart. on it. Though if you're set on a new integrated, I'd second the Rega suggestion made above. 60w Mira's can be found here at audiogon for around 700. Good luck and have fun.

Would it be a bit wiser to perhaps try a new cartridge before trying a new turntable?? Once upon a time I used Grado, but they happen to make an awful hum when used with Rotel...so my local dealer wasn't suggesting much other than Ortofon as a replacement.

It's certainly possible that it's not the Nak's fault. The few things I've read around here suggest that it was/is a quality piece of gear.

Yeah, if you know you're going to be into vinyl for the long haul, then investing in a nice cartridge makes sense (since you can always take it with you if/when you move up to a nicer table). At this point, I think a new cart. would equal your best bang for the buck. It might be useful to find out what the Nak delivers in terms of gain and what it's looking for in terms of impedence. If you can find this information, you might want to start a new thread in "Analog" asking for specific suggestions.

Well, I know it's almost three and a half years since this thread was initiated, but I somehow linked to it now. My Vandersteen 1C's have been getting along just beautifully with my Rogue Audio Cronus integrated amp since December 2007. Great synergy between the amp, speakers, analog and digital front ends (click on my system), with an extremely musical presentation. I love the way everything works together, and for my ears, in my room, it's a winnig combination. The Rega P3-24 table and Exact 2 cartridge seem to jive perfectly with the Cronus' built-in phono stage, and it's a great way to listen to records.

What else are my fellow 'Goners using to drive the Vandersteen 1C's ?