After going through about 10-12 high end integrated amps have been looking also for my last integrated as I’m getting older and space, $, is getting to be a premium.also tired of trying, testing and changing; so ended up with a couple of choices, 2 of them with exorbitant pricing, then my recommendation is for a pricey amp and not ridiculous, that sounds as good or maybe better in some regards to the big $$ amps, here are some examples of what I’ve tried so far.
DartZeel, Ypsilon, Gryphon, CH Accuphase, Luxman, and others I’ve tried, including a couple of hybrid and all tube amps.
my choice of value for $ and there is no hint of any hardness or harshness of any kind. Was the Accuphase integrated, I had an E-650, while very good in all regards a little lo wish in power for healthy headroom in dynamic and bass peaks. So went to E-800, then also purchased an E-480 to get a good grip on more powerful amps and the E-5000.
they are all fantastic cakes for the $ and will greatly depend on your speakers, if you have speakers with sensitivity of 89 dB or less I defenestro y recommend the E-480 for medium to later room, if you have an even bigger room definitely go for the E-5000 if you can fit the budget.
I feel the Gryphon Diablo 300 came fairly close but with my large ribbon tweeters I could hear some hardness in the upper mids that bothered me a little bit.
then the Ypsilon Phaeton but at $35k did not sound the best in my system and of course price was way out there and performance seemed not better than the others I was considering sometimes not even on par. I was expecting sincerely quite a bit more of the more expensive guys….
my recommendation, take a listen to either the Accuphase e-480 or the e-5000 depending on room and $.
hope this helps a little bit