I’ll throw another amp into the mix - NAIM 5i
I have the 5i (mk II) (50w) which has a passive front end - the earlier mk1 had an active pre-amp and was not as good. The new 5i also has a passive front end and is a little more powerful (60w) - not that you’ll need it
Since I purchased the amp I’ve looked at other amps, but nothing under $5k comes close to the performance of the NAIM
It responds very well to nice cables and provides a very clean, detailed , neutral and very dynamic sound.
One word of caution - these amps do not like speaker cables that have a high capacitance - they can drive them to destruction - quite literally. Having said that I have tried a few different cables and they were all under 40 pF/meter and worked very well. (this also applies to many high current solid state amps)
Have a read of this review...
https://www.whathifi.com/naim/nait-5si/review
Regards...
I have the 5i (mk II) (50w) which has a passive front end - the earlier mk1 had an active pre-amp and was not as good. The new 5i also has a passive front end and is a little more powerful (60w) - not that you’ll need it
Since I purchased the amp I’ve looked at other amps, but nothing under $5k comes close to the performance of the NAIM
It responds very well to nice cables and provides a very clean, detailed , neutral and very dynamic sound.
One word of caution - these amps do not like speaker cables that have a high capacitance - they can drive them to destruction - quite literally. Having said that I have tried a few different cables and they were all under 40 pF/meter and worked very well. (this also applies to many high current solid state amps)
Have a read of this review...
https://www.whathifi.com/naim/nait-5si/review
Regards...