Decent stereo amp / pre amp on relative budget

If you like the anthem, check out Sonic Frontiers?????

Smbestbier,

Do you already have the CD player or will you be purchasing it too? If you don't already have the CD player, you could get a Quad 99 CDP CD player ($800 used) which has built-in remote volume control. Add a Quad 909 power amp ($900 used) and you would have very good sounding electronics and only need a single pair of interconnect cables.

If you already own a CD player that you plan to use, I would personally suggest a high quality integrated amp. I like the simple systems since they require less shelf space and less dollars invested in interconnect cables. You can buy a Plinius 8200 for about $1200 or a Plinius 8100 for $800. The newer mkII versions are a bit more expensive and the 9100 is yet even a bit more at about $1400-1500 used.

There are lots of great choices out there and you could easily get a quality integrated amp for less than 50% of your max budget.

Enjoy,

TIC

magnum dynalab receiver. a first class tuner to boot.

I ran the Studio 100 V 3's with a Rotel RC995 preamp and the Odyssey Extreme monoblock amplifiers for between six months and a year. The Odysseys were a huge improvement over the B&K ST140, which itself was fairly decent. Although something like 91 dB efficient, the Paradigm Studio 100 V 3's STILL loved the extra current and power of the Odysseys. Very nice match. (Apologies, hadn't seen your loudspeakers.)

I'd also buy used, actually I did buy used. I bought a McCormack DNA .5 amp and a Tube Audio Design-150 pre. Awesome combo and it only cost me $1400 total.

For $3500 you can have a very nice set-up.