Good Audio System for Living Room

You may like the LFD Mistral integrated amps. For SS, they fit your description very well. Not bit of grain or harshness or brightness, real easy, good color, and the unit is compact and attractive. I don't think there is a remote availible, if that is important. There is a 50 watter for $1100, and 75 watt, LE version for $1500.

ProAc speakers are also worth considering; nice and open sounding.

How about a used tube receiver such as an old McIntosh or Fisher? These is easy to deal with if in good condition. Very warm sound and easy on the eyes.

As for CD player, unless are you interested in being able to play DVD, there are tons of great used players here at Audiogon.

As for speakers, there are so many it's hard to know where to start. However, when I think of small and warm, The Vandersteen 1B comes to mind.

These with the Macintosh or Fisher would make bullet proof sound that would be difficult to find fault with, especially for long term listening.

I'm guessing here that since your friend recommended Rega he knows something about your tastes. I listened to some Rega speakers recently & although not a full blown audition, I liked what I heard. Definitely worth a listen.

Here's there product line if you haven't looked yet. http://www.rega.co.uk/index2.htm

I would go with McIntosh SS or tube. There are many used models available on ebay since the company has been around for a long time, and for a range of prices. They made a slim-line setup that is compact. I own two of these SS pieces currently for my living room: C712 pre and MC7100 amp (>100Wpc) - quite a killer combination for the price (about $1300 for both only 5 years old). They push Paradigm Reference 100s which are great for a living room because they don't require huge amounts of space around them to sound good. I have them close to the back wall and they sound as good as when I had them closer to the middle of the room. I love my setup and listen to it all the time - super warm, sweet, detailed, musical, and envelopping.

The Linn Classik offers compact quality, is very good sounding AND has a high WAF as it is one box that does all while not cluttering up the room. Used with tuner model can be found for around $1100. Axiom M3Ti (audioshop.on.ca)in black are quite good with this unit or even the Spendor SP3 for $895 new. By the time you add speaker stands you could be just over 2K and this system will be quite musical.