Decent stereo amp / pre amp on relative budget

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.

Greetings,
I'm enjoying a PS Audio combo; HCA-2 digital amp at 150wpc into 8 ohms. And the PCA-2 preamp. Very nice equipment that'll set you back about $1,600 - for both if you buy used on Agon! Economical separates that perform extremely well. Mate them with a nice cd player and you've got superb music.

Do not overlook quality interconnects and speaker cables. You'll never hear the best of your system until the connections are up to level of quality as your components. Used lower/mid end Audioquest cables are always a good choice for beginning. You should be able to get decent enough cables at economical price. But, then again, I spent more on cables than any other component in my system at this point! But the sound is worth it.