Good starter amp recommendation

Might consider Vincent, and also a + for NuForce.
Own both.
They sound very nice to me.
Happy hunting!

Tom

I will not make a recommendation on what to buy, but I will make recommendations ( cautions ) on what not to buy. Early B & K ST 140s. By todays standards, very dark, very muddy, very soft, no dynamics. 20 plus year old McCormack amps. Ready for rebuilds, new front end boards, etc., but if you find one that has been rebuilt recently, a great choice. Nuforce STA200. I have 2, and think they are sleepers ( excellent ), but are finicky with associated gear in front of them. Tubes ( and this is my opinion ). Colored, noisy, microphonic, and expensive to re-tube. They do some magical things, but no longer for me. Odyssey, good in some systems and not so good in others ( same with Nad, ime ).Try returning an Odyssey product for a refund, Klaus will have a fit, but after some cooling down, will credit a refund ( again, ime ). Set up 2 different systems, if possible. Any screen will mess up the center image when listening to 2 channel music. Also, in my experience, all the other speakers in a multichannel set up, when listening in 2 channel mode, will be playing along, as the woofers vibrate along from the spl in the room. Biggest recommendation, try and listen for yourself. Or, as millercarbon says, ignore anything I am saying to you. Enjoy ! MrD.

camradal
Good starter amp recommendation

Get a Schiit Vidar poweramp, it will drive just about anything, and mate it with a Schiit Saga preamp, or for a couple more hundred a Schiit Freya preamp. https://www.schiit.com/products/vidar

For your money these are rather keepers not starter amps. And come with 15 day trial period.

Cheers George

Owned a B&K ST140 with a ModWright SWL 9.0 SE w/Apogee Centaur speakers and far from muddy and dark or too soft. Maybe it was just great Synergy or I was lucky.... not. Was using Clear Day Cables throughout at the time. Was it as good as the ARC 100.2 that replaced it? Nope, but I only paid $150 dollars for it and the ARC was nearly 8X’s the price. ARC 100.2 is another dang good amp too, regardless of age.