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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
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
zuio OP
MF sounds unnatural to me.

+1 They MF sound, are even more cooler, etched, than the JC1’s in low bias mode.
Never like them, definitely a MF house sound (very high gain used?), even their old little A1, A100 so called "Class-A’s" had the same sound, which btw were lucky to be measured to be even 10w of Class-A
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/zPkAAOSwvbZeiOjN/s-l1600.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/12/08/0a/12080aff826bd67d14bac6c74bd9b4b4.jpg

Cheers George
ryder
1,734 posts
 
What are your speakers? Maybe your speakers are the culprit to the unnatural warm sound you are getting. Not so much about the amp.
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
Not to me they become invisible like the speakers have left the room, and the music just washes over you in a 3D sound stage, that you swear you can get up and walk into.
And I've built many, some very big ones over the last 30 years, even a self contained 120w-8ohm pure class-A water cooled one that could double down to 2ohm, that was two man lift, the size of a coffee table. 

It must be a personal taste thing.  While I can appreciate the Parasound stuff and the Halo have an incredibly clean midrange, they just do not have the high frequency extension that other amps do.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Parasound stuff and the Halo have an incredibly clean midrange, they just do not have the high frequency extension that other amps do.
I think you may not like the sound of Class-A as that’s what the highs would be running as with the bias they have on them. As they sure are not rolled off as far as frequency bandwidth goes.

Parasound:
Frequency Response
2 Hz - 120 kHz, +0/-2 dB
20 Hz - 20 kHz, +0/-0.25 dB

About the same

Stereophile
was down by 3dB just below 100kHz!!
Cheers George
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
Sorry, but all amps pretty much have specs like this.  It comes down to listening.  It may seem to you that the high frequencies are not rolled off, but if you put the A21 side by side with something like a Krell Evolution amp, it becomes very apparent that the Parasound is lacking in high frequency detail.
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