DK Design VS.1 Ref. mk II ,& a good matching CD.

I think you will find quite a lot of headroom with the DK and your speakers. I have heard the DK paired with a Musical Fidelity A5 and this combination sounded very nice.

I used a Northstar Model 192 DAC & Transport with my DK amp for about 8 months. It was a great combination. The Northstar units could be had used close to your 2k budget and are excellent for redbook. Lots of good choices already mentioned.

I have one of the first productions of the DK amp, VS1-MI, and have been using an Opera Consonance, as others have suggested here, with good results. I would try to listen to the players first (I personally think that testing at home with all your accompanying gear would be the best, but, probably not easily done. Depends on your dealer).

Bignerd100,
I am planning on a second listening room. What other amps would you recommend (as you pointed in your post) aside from DK in the same price range? I am happy with my DK but would like something different for variety. Thanks.

Really like the Exemplar Audio by John Tucker.
It's a universal player based on the chassis of the
vaunted Denon 3910, with a couple of tubes thrown in for good 'measure' sorry couldn't resist.
This is one player that sounds like theyre supposed to.
Rewired with Siltech, better internals on the audio side, (hey it already gets 'top' video measurements as it is--)plus who is better to deal with than the inimitable John Tucker?
Great gear. Terrific 'sound'.
lrsky

Really like the Exemplar Audio by John Tucker.
It's a universal player based on the chassis of the
vaunted Denon 3910, with a couple of tubes thrown in for good 'measure' sorry couldn't resist.
This is one player that sounds like theyre supposed to.
Rewired with Siltech, better internals on the audio side, (hey it already gets 'top' video measurements as it is--)plus who is better to deal with than the inimitable John Tucker?
Great gear. Terrific 'sound'.
lrsky