Budget amp for NHT 2.5i - suggestions?

If you were to decide go that direction something you should consider would be using another McCormack 0.5 Deluxe and vertically bi-amping the NHT's. McCormack also makes a couple preamps that would work well in this situation the TLC-1 or the Micro Line Drive (MLD) that you can get for a couple hundred bucks here. Both of these are passive preamps, the TLC-1 has an additional output that's buffered while the MLD has an additional output that's an active out put but the output can adjusted +/- 3dbs. Both of these mate very well with the McCormack amps. One word of caution passive preamps require particular attention be paid to the type interconnects used because they will affect the sound. Lot of good information here on Audiogon and just search passive preamps, there also good information about this at SMc Audio.

105sixteen
Would be interesting to hear/see how your system turned out? What do you think? Drop us a line and let us know.

Hey guys, yeah so I've had most everything hooked up for the last two weeks or so and I am loving how it all sounds. Again, I ended up with the Decco as my dac/pre going into the DNA 0.5 deluxe. I am using unterminated BJC speaker wire (Belden) which seems to be working out well. Heard a slight improvement over the ribbon cord I was using before.

The last thing I needed was ICs, as I was borrowing a friend's. After much debating, I ended up going with a great deal on Morrow MA-1s, which I received a few days ago. These made a very certain improvement in sound quality - I was very surprised as I wasn't sure how much they would actually affect SQ. They are currently going through burn in, and after the next couple hundred hours they should start sounding better and better.