My Triad of Integrateds

@hasmarto 


I recognize and genuinely respect your amplifier choice, AA makes wonderful gear and your Maestro is by all accounts exceptional. The older AA stuff I heard many years ago is too far from my aural memory to comment on. It will be beneficial to the brand here in North America to establish and support an appropriate and stable distribution channel. I hope that is the case.

In order to stay on topic, my triad of integrateds with tubes and solid state co-mingled, decidedly not taking into account speaker selection, is as follows:

Affordable pricing:
Leben CS300x
Naim
Primaluna

Higher priced:
Dartzeel
Leben CS600
Nagra Classic Integrated

Bonjour,
Try the GAMUT Di 150 LE.........http://www.gamutaudio.com/amplifiers/di150-le

The Absolare Altius integrated is the best I’ve ever heard. Frighteningly real. It has a tube preamp stage and SS amp stage. Super minimal. This company deserves more attention. 
j

The seldom mentioned (for reasons beyond me) Marantz products, particularly their reference line.
Pm 14s1 or older pm 15s1....$3000, or for under $1500, not much can touch the rogue sphinx v2 in my opinion. For $1200 you should listen to the Marantz pm8006, wow...super amp. As far as pass labs, although not an integrated, I'd love to own a first watt j2...paired with maybe one of rogue's excellent preamps....maybe some day. 

Absolutely on the Ayre. I saved for a couple of years to buy my AX-5 Twenty - the heart of my system.
If I didn't have the Ayre I would look at the Aesthetix Mimas. Never heard a Luxman but I've only read positive things about that brand.