Sub 1k integrated?


A couple of years ago, I reached out for budget speaker advice, and ended up with the original Elac debut b6's. After an underwhelming beginning, I am onboard and have been very happy, though I do run the treble tone control a bit hot. Currently (huh huh) driving them is an about 20 year old Yamaha HTR-5560 avr receiver that I am looking to upgrade. Although is it now considered vintage and thus better than anything out there today? Maybe an interesting concept to explore in another thread...

Now to the point. On paper I've limited my choices to a Yamaha A-S801, Outlaw Audio RR2160, or the recent YouTube darling IOTAVX SA3/PA3 stack. Anyone with experience with these? Will any of these be a decent anchor piece as I slowly but surely wind on down the road?

I listen to mostly rock, post rock, metal, space rock, blues and jazz. If you are tempted to assume the metal and post rock stuff is without dynamic range, let me know and I'll send some album recommendations.  This source material is primarily played from a healthy yet strangely still expanding CD collection, played by the Onkyo 7030 with the onboard Wolfsons. Streaming is done with a Chromecast audio puck/Schiit Modi 3 setup using Google Play Music and Spotify. No vinyl in the future, and I don't need it to do home theater duty.

Thanks in advance!

iron57
My spider senses are tingling, telling me you might try and put legs on a snake. What I mean is you have speakers with a lot of very fine qualities, but they are not efficient nor will they play loud- no matter how much power you feed them. 

What you have are some very fine budget speakers. You will be smart to play to their strengths and not try and make them something they're not. If you want volume then get some Klipsch Heresy's. 

If you stick with the B6 then look for as good a tube integrated as you can find. This way you'll have quality. Eventually when you can afford better speakers you'll be careful to find more efficient ones and that will get you the volume you want. You will find by the way that a 20 to 40 watt tube integrated sounds as powerful and plays as loud as 100 watts of solid state. The Outlaw will give you nowhere near the sound quality, and very little if any more volume. YouTube darlings, the bloom goes off the rose fast. A good tube integrated is pretty much good forever.
Hmm, interesting. So glad I posted, each reply so far has given me something to ponder...

Thanks!
I will be sticking with the b6’s for now though, or to your point is that a bad play?

Save for higher performing speakers first then amp? Or build around a new amp? A question that has been posted and pondered many times in this forum and others. Emotionally, I think I am more ready to let go of the AVR right now and upgrade speakers down the line.

I am not chasing hi-end (obviously) I have three future college tuitions as bad roommates right now, I am after something entry with a respectable sound to price ratio.

Great point on the YouTube darlings too.
If you're patient, you should be able to pick up a decent integrated used at the 1K price point.  Creek, Exposure, Belles Aria, would be names to look out for.
so @millercarbon - what is your sub-$1K tube integrated recommendation?  If we skip the price then sure we can open up all sorts of possibilities but the OP framed the question.