Budget amp advice

One amp that I had used for a few years while I had a pair of NHT 2.9's was the Acurus A-150. You can find them cheap on Audiogon for $300 to $400. I purchased two and biamped with fabulous results. It is a lot of bang for the buck. Plus it is made in America and distributed by Mondial.
I think these amps are discontinued but are still listed at the Mondial site.
http://www.mondialdesigns.com/acurus/previous

The best ST-140's were the very first models made. These were only rated at 70 wpc and had iron core ( old style ) transformers. The second production models were rated at 105 wpc and used toroidal transformers (wire-wound "donuts").

As such, the older B & K amps are soft and smooth, erring more on the warm and mellow side than on the hard or bright side. As such, they are typically more listenable with digital sources than many of the other amps that are currently available. While not anywhere near the last word in detail or resolution, it would be hard for someone to find them as being "offensive" sounding.

Given your speakers and the use of metal domes, it would be a FAR better match (in my opinion) than an Adcom, Acurus or Parasound product. On top of this, you can typically find these for well under $250.

One thing to remember though is that some of these amps used output devices that are no longer currently available. MAKE SURE that the amp is fully functional and that they guarantee it to be working upon delivery. Should the amp take a dive, B & K will rebuild it to current production standards for a VERY reasonable price. Sean
>

The B&K ST-140 is a good, classic design that has been around a long time. My personal recommendation, however, is to look at a Rotel, Adcom, or Parasound in your price range (either new or used). The other choice which you might want to explore is the Musical Fidelity line, which is sold through Audio Advisors.

What is your price range? Are you willing to buy second hand? With a limited budget, secondhand purchases for amps are very attractive and depending on your price range there are a lot of attractive amps out there.

I recommend the Odyssey Stratos at $995 for 150 watts/ch.
You get a marvelous build quality and sweet sound. For the money, they have absolutely no rival.