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Lively, fast & open sounding integrated under 3k?

My speakers are 89db 2 way monitors with a very warm sound. Minimum impedance 3.5 ohm
large Room, low level listening 

My goals
no.1
excellent immediacy, speed & timing (dont recommend naim, very unnatural forced sound)

no2
forward soundstage (begins at the listening position and extends beyond the speakers)

No3.
Body without warmth

no4.
small in size if possible, but no class D, doubles into 4 ohms, Good at low volumes
new or used.

possible candidates from reading reviews

crayon cia-1
teac ai-2000
krell s300i
sugden a21se

128x128zuio
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
I don't think I would recommend the Krell s300i integrated for this scenario.  The Krell really smooths the highs and it's not as open as others.

Music Fidelity would be a good candidate.  I would also look at Hegel integrateds and even Yamaha integrateds.  Those are both very fast and high resolution.
zuio's avatar
zuio OP
96 posts
 
Thank you auxinput.

Btw. The 3.5ohm are a mistake. I have learned my speakers have a minimum of 5.3ohms with a maximum of 50ohms. So tube amps are a possibility as well. I have a eye on the 17W (in 8 and 4 ohm) quad va-one ei84 Push pull amp.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
zuio OP
Lively, fast & open sounding integrated under 3k?

The Triangle signature Theta’s can go down to 4ohms, and to me sounded like they needed to be livened up  

A used John Curl designed Parasound Halo Hint integrated, you should be able to pickup for $3k or less, it’ll drive almost anything even has a ESS Sabre dac in it as well as a phono stage if you need it.
https://parasound.com/hint.php

$2.5K https://www.ebay.com/itm/Parasound-Halo-Integrated-Amplifier/324200768315?hash=item4b7bdf233b:g:RjkAAOSwTO9eSf3s

$1.4K!!! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Parasound-Halo-Integrated/124201839309?hash=item1ceb01aacd:g:hBgAAOSwSiVezmXD

Cheers George
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
Parasound Halo is voiced just slightly on the warm side of neutral, so it is not going to be as open or high resolution as stuff like Hegel, Music Fidelity, Yamaha.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Parasound Halo is voiced just slightly on the warm side of neutral
Not from what I’ve heard, that may apply to the Halo JC1’s etc, switched into high Class-A bias mode, but the standard a/b lower bias mode is definitely a cooler more etched sound.

Cheers George
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