Hi Bill, Thanks for your followup to my original request, but as you can see from my more recent posts in this thread I have finally chosen an amp far beyond my originally planned budget, as tube amps seemed so much better than solid state ones (well, I haven't tested the McIntoshes anyway.... for those I should probably shell out much more than what I consider reasonable for any music). I couldn't try the Cambridge Audio ones because at the end I've only tried the shop where I had previously

Hi Tarheel, [quote user="Tarheel"] What brand name KT-88 tubes were in it? [/quote] I've just checked and the two KT-88s are "Made in Russia" by "Sovtek ®" (even though they also have "Unison Research" printed on the glass but that text, in red, seems to be added by the amp manufacturer just to display their own brand). Also the two small 12AU7/ECC82H are "Made in Russia", but those are branded "electro-harmonix". Do you know any of

Hello, I've finally made my choice and, yes, I've listened to all those suggesting tube amps and I've even stretched my budget far beyond my original plans but, after all, if my old Yamaha played fine for over 25 years I hope my new tube amp will last enough to make its price worth the choice. At first I thought the FatMan iTube 182 could be enough, but then I tested the iTube 252 which sounded far better and then... my heart and ears were conquered by the Unison Research Preludio, a

Hello, here's a small update after a first listening session. The Denon PMA-1500 has been deleted from the list as it sounds worse than my old Yamaha with my speakers. I could listen to an Arcam A75 which is acceptable, but I'm still looking around. The best surprise has been the small Fatman iTube, a vacuum tube integrated amplifier which is still in my budget range and which sounds better than the Arcam A75 while having exactly the same price. Its power is a mere 18W, but certainly it didn't

[quote user="MitsuMan"] So are you totally against the idea of a vintage amp/preamp? [/quote] Absolutely MitsuMan, I don't want to consider used components, and a good amp/preamp combo would fall beyond my current budget. Space is also an issue, albeit a minor one, so I intend to stick to an integrated amp for the time being. I'll probably get there some day, but currently I'm not rich enough... Thanks and best regards, Giovanni

Thanks Bill and Tarheel for your replies. I haven't listened to any amp so far, and I'm confident I can arrange to listen to some of them at the shop where I bought the RF-35, while for some brands I'll have to look elsewhere. I know listening to them with familiar music is a required step before the final choice, but the aim of this thread is just to narrow down my list to avoid wandering in too many places for too long When I'll take home my new amplifier I'll certainly follow

Hello, I'm currently selecting an integrated amplifier to replace my 25-year old Yamaha A-520, which is the only piece left out of my very first hi-fi system. As it is connected to a pair of Klipsch RF-35, I hope you can give me some advice considering that my allocated budget is about 800 Euro (i.e. about 1000 $) but I could spend a little more if I find a really good amp. Most music I listen to is played through a NAD C342 CD player, and while I use the hi-fi also while watching movies on DVD