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Lots of good choices in your price range

My thoughts are as follows:

In your situation, I would look first at integrated amps with built in phono stages. They are more compact, have fewer things to worry about and generally offer better value for money. You should be able to get a decent one new or a great one second hand.

The ones I know best and would recommend are a good second hand Plinius or Sugden.

Your budget should cover a second hand Plinius 8200 only a few years old. They have a phono stage, have excellent reviews and if they sound anything like my 9100, they are really good. There are none on ebay at the moment but I see that there are a few on Audiogon right in your price range. http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/srch_fs.pl?WORD=plinius&FOCUS=EXY&CTGSK=intatran&submit=Search

There is one Sugden integrated on ebay at the moment that you would get for a whole lot less money but it doesn't appear to have phono so you would need a separate phono stage. http://cgi.ebay.com/Sugden-Optima-80-Passive-Line-Integrated-Amplifier_W0QQitemZ5834869586QQcategoryZ3280QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

There are lots of other good amps that I do not know as well. If you live near a major center, I would phone the local hi fi stores to see what good intergrateds they may have second hand and check the local second hand paper. You can then seek opinions on some specific models that are readily available to you. The advantage of this approach is that you should be able to hear it before buying and if its from the right store, you may be able to try it in your own home.

It would be possible to advise you much better if we knew a bit more about your loudspeakers, room, the kind(s) of music you like to listen to, how loud you like to play, whether you mainly listen to CDs or LPs, what instrument(s) you play yourself and what aspects of the sound are most critical to you.

David


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  • Lots of good choices in your price range - energyandair 11/27/0519:31:22 11/27/05 (0)


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