Dawgbyte- Green Mountain would be nice, but X has to specially import them. Expensive.
The smaller M Audio have a slight boom-tizz character. By comparison, the Elac could sound flatter but dryish.
Neither will outperform B&W 801 matrix.
One idea is to keep your amp, and use the amp money for speakers, widening your choice. Another is to opt for a kit. I strongly recommend the kit. There are suberb kits with good prices in the US, and quite good prices in Germany. A well designed & executed kit (i.e. one from a reputable dealer) can easily outperform commercial designs costing 3x as much (or more).
Amps. Before you import the Shanling, why not research local tube amps? Surely there are gifted designers of tube equipment in S Africa. The price/performance ratio should be better, service round the corner, you can get the designer to take into account your speakers -- and as to the resale value, tune it out for a moment. Instead, think of the nice sound and quantify that in too -- a (possibly) lower resale value + the higher satisfaction may give you a better deal!
The smaller M Audio have a slight boom-tizz character. By comparison, the Elac could sound flatter but dryish.
Neither will outperform B&W 801 matrix.
One idea is to keep your amp, and use the amp money for speakers, widening your choice. Another is to opt for a kit. I strongly recommend the kit. There are suberb kits with good prices in the US, and quite good prices in Germany. A well designed & executed kit (i.e. one from a reputable dealer) can easily outperform commercial designs costing 3x as much (or more).
Amps. Before you import the Shanling, why not research local tube amps? Surely there are gifted designers of tube equipment in S Africa. The price/performance ratio should be better, service round the corner, you can get the designer to take into account your speakers -- and as to the resale value, tune it out for a moment. Instead, think of the nice sound and quantify that in too -- a (possibly) lower resale value + the higher satisfaction may give you a better deal!