Finally stepping into the hobby after 30 years of watching from the sidelines


Ok, so I hope you are all ok with a longwinded post from a first time user of the forum.  I have been obsessed with vinyl and tubes since my dad played records for me as a 5 year old.  My wife and I are finally in a place that we can take the leap into the scene.  We want to grow our system over time and may even create 2-3 systems along the way as we have a bed and breakfast where we want to make analog part of the theme. 

We have made up our mind that our first speakers will be Vandersteen 2CE sigs.  That is about as far as we have gotten.  We definitely want to power them with tubes and have very little idea of where to start.  Obviously the mainstream option would be a Mcintosh mc275 and our local HiFi salesman would LOVE to sell us a pair of those.  However, we know that there are several cheeper/better options out there and would love some input from the board.  We'd like to keep the first amp under $3,000, but we aren't locked into that.  Keep in mind that we are ok starting with a single amp and then adding a second one along the way to mono them.  Also, we would love some help with a table/arm/cartridge!  One with an integrated phono stage is fine to start with and we would again be open to upgrading and adding a stand alone phono stage later on.  

We will be doing some electrical work soon to run a 40 amp fuse to the BnBs espresso machine and would be open to setting up a dedicated line for our main system at that time so that we can have clean power.  Has any one had any experience with this?  Any ideas or recommendations that you may have would be a big help here! 

Thank you all in advance, and we are really excited to finally be part of the scene! 
128x128cottguy
What took you so long? You must be very tired after watching from the sidelines for all that time. But I would definately go all out because you have 30 years to make up, good luck!
Costly indeed! I want the op to think about what he is doing and get a good nights sleep, after that if he still wants in we will have no choice but to allow it. This is usually granted on rare occasions but I don't think we will have a choice.
This is an unusual situation in that he is choosing the equipment together with his wife. His posts show that he is giving a great thought to what he is about to do. One of the problems is that I don't see many good tube integrated amps with good phono and sufficient power at a reasonable price. Of course, you can get used  current VAC, but it's big money. Anyone knows anything about Melody brand from Australia ? I saw their used tube integrated here for $2k, no phono stage though and only 40 watt/ch which may or may not be enough. I also saw Viva integrated from Italy, great sound, but again not much power and no phono.
One of the reasons why I suggested auditioning Vienna is because I know for a fact that many women like how they sound. I heard various models a number of years ago with McIntosh tube integrated and separates and with Krells. I actually preferred the sound with McI but with some reservations. I was not auditioning for myself just assisting someone. Sonus Faber sounded thick and slow with McI, by the way.