McCormack , Aragon or Forte

I had a McCormack pre amp - ALD Delux with phono, very nice. I used cables from MIT, Bluejeans, Cardas, Tara Labs and Kimber. All worked well, bluejeancables.com were cheapest.

If you go McCormack I highly recommend holding out for a Rev. A version as you get a much better amplifier and the upgrades are discounted heavily when buying used so that they're not all that much more expensive than Deluxe. Best of luck.

I'd copy Jedinite24's suggestions although all here are on the mark. I liked my time with McCormack on the Way Back Machine, and I really enjoyed my Forte 4s.

The Forte amps to me have a pedigree that is hard to beat, the designer of which I believe is Nelson Pass (one of the gods if not the god of SS amp design).
I had one here for repair a while back, can't remember which one it was but it sounded very good with a passive preamp, it had quite a high Class A bias as it ran very hot.
They also use what's called IGBT output transistors which are like a Mosfets on the input, but Bi-Polar (bjt) output, so they can give better current supply to harder speaker loads like your Apogee's than a ordinary Mosfet can supply.
I say they are a poor mans version of Nelson's top amps. And can be picked up cheap, do your home work as there are a few different models, get the right one and you'll be happy.

Cheers George

One more vote for McCormack amplifiers ...they are capable of multidimensional lifelike sound. With SMcAudio upgrades, non of the other amps mentioned will compare. Good luck and enjoy!