my shortlist for integrated Harbethsuper hl5 plus xd - please advise

I had the SHL5+ paired with a Parasound a21+ and they sounded excellent together, the smooth, punchy Parasound sound is a perfect match for the Harbeth. 

The Parasound house sound is represented in their integrated amp, the HINT 6.  At 240 watts / channel at 4 ohms you will not be lacking anything with the 5's.  

Save some money over the other choices and enjoy the sound ! 

I’d bet my last two WE300b’s you’ve gotten your four amp choice reccomendations from 4 different reviewers. You’re going about it in reverse IMHO. Find a reviewer or review site partial to your Harbeths . See what THEY reccomend. I’ve got your Harbeths and the P7es speakers as well as Spendor 1/2’s and B&W 606s’ all available at a cable change away and I listen 90% to the Harbeths. One thing you ARE trying to do that is right IMHO , is you are trying to build around a very very good pair of speakers that deserve the best amplification you can afford. I wouldn’t consider any of those amps. You’ll be listening to 30% of what the Harbeths can give you. 

ok thanksm ,

what amp do you suggest please?

those amp suggestion came from reading the harbeth forums as the next best tier down options from accuphase/luxman/LFE

the other I thing I find confusing is the notion of skipping reviews when my speakers are very highly reviewed

and of course trying to understand peoples experiences

example

@brownred6 

your advice contradicts the post directly above yours

that particular parasound appears to have specs beyond anything else mentioned

or is it more than just specs to this?

Recently purchased an integrated amp for my Harbeth super HL5+XDs as well.

A Modwright KWH 225i, which has tubes in the pre-amp section. Bought it online used (1yo) and paid half price. Otherwise, I’d never have been able to afford it.

I spent a lot of time researching units for these speakers, and what I discovered is that pretty much anything will pair with them. More important is to buy an integrated amp that doesn’t have anything you don’t need. 

I was looking for something that was just a pre-amp and amp — because I don’t want to pay for things I don’t need — and that’s all the Modwright is (not even a headphone jack). I ended up buying a unit that had the optional phono preamp. Didn’t need it, even though it’s better than the one I had, but that unit ended up being cheaper than another used unit that didn’t have it.

Also, the guy I bought from threw in a pair of $300 tubes as well.

I was also wary of buying something with an overseas markup of some sort (I also bought my Harbeths used for almost half price). And Modwright is made in, I believe, California. (Unsure where you’re based)

Also I like less well-known brands (sometimes) because (sometimes) I feel like part of what you’re paying for is a brand name.

There are a lot of other smaller players out there you might like, though the smaller the player sometimes the greater the cost.

But going the other direction, another name to consider that might fit a slightly expanded budget is Naim. The Naim Supernait 3 gets a lot of good press for working well with Harbeths.