Power Amp for newbie

You cannot go wrong with Acurus gear,but,personally I'd save up a little longer and wait for a deal on an Aragon 8002 or 8008. The slight increase in price rewards you with a significant increase in overall quality. My first amp was an Acurus, than an Aragon, and now a Krell. At the time I first got into audio there was no real marketplace for used equipment. So I had to be subject to paying retail as I moved my way up. Take advantage of this website and skip the Acurus. The natural progression seems to be an Aragon next anyway. If I could do it again I'd go for the Aragon first!

Quite apart from brands and price points, I'd advise you to at least look into the possibility of monoblock power amps. I used conventional stereo amps for decades, some very good ones included, but after trying a couple kinds of monoblocks I'll never use anything else. My speaker cable length came down from 7' to 18", and the improvement was enormous! I'm now using a pair of Pass Aleph 3's, which gets about $2000 at used prices, but cheaper monoblocks can be had.

Either stick with the ACURUS setup and get the power amp to match the rest of the system.Or go for ARAGON or SONOGRAPHE which is made by Conrad Johnson.

I agree with Martice, an Acurus amp with the other Acurus gear may tend to sound a bit bright/harsh (I've owned some of it). I'd lean toward an amp that was a bit more laid back, like a B&K or Aragon if you have the money.

While several people point out that Aragon, McCormack and some other amps would be better, the weak link that I see is the preamp. I'm not familiar with the sound of the CDP, but have heard that it can be very bright, lean and harsh sounding. I have owned an Acurus Audio L-10 preamp, and if its performance (coherent & detailed, but very lean, analytical and a bit harsh...with a ST-140, no less!) is indicative of the Acurus pre's, I'd definitely upgrade that unit. Buy a used A150 amp $350-500, and use the money saved to upgrade the preamp...the amps are a great value. Maybe an inexpensive DAC (Adcom GDA-600/700) to help smooth the "edges" on the CDP.