Good 2 channel integrated amplifier for 702 s2 under 3k?

 End game- Hegel 390-$$

MF M6si, moe betta

Click on the link. I have HAPPILY owned the smaller GCC 250 since they were first introduced 10+ years ago

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisaa3b9-ps-audio-gcc-500-stereo-integrated-amplifier-gcc500-remot...

 Duder,   you open yourself up to a million different answer's .  You will go nuts thinking and spinning about  
 The Speaker ,  you won't have around that long  so buy the first thing you see 
 

Also using a Rogue Pharoah for 2 channel. Fine piece of equipment. 175/350 wpc,  Prosseser loop for my loki,  Very nice phono stage,  tube driven headphone amp,  HT bypass for your movies,  with a balance control!!!  I use RCA clear tops. Controlled bass, smooth highs and a midrange made in heaven. Customer service is over the top as well!  Do not see these very often, but are in your $ range used.

I bought the Parasound Hint 6 to play with my Aerial 5T standmounts. I like the smoothness of the midrange and vocals. Really nice. Also like the connection options, USB, COAX, 3.5mm, Optical etc and Tone Controls.

I have B&W CM9 S2, at first i powered them with a Denon receiver and it sounded good, i then upgraded to an old Rotel integrated (BX900?) and the difference was HUGE, the control over the bass and punch was night and day.

I later upgraded to a Classe CAP-151 and the improvement was also significant but in a different way, much improved sound stage. The Classe was older and required a Recapp but it got a good deal on it so it was worth the repair to have years of trouble free service.

For what the OP is looking for I have found the Arcam SA30 to be an excellent unit. Real power, rich bass, and no-edge smooth highs.

Agreed with mostly everyone above. The Musical Fidenity is probably the best of the list. However I'm not fond of your list, sorry.
You're better off with any from the companies below. You can find some good used deals on them.
Parasound
Naim
Simaudio/Moon
Ayre
McIntosh - Tube or SS
Quicksilver - Awesome tube gear in your price range new.

Kinki Studio EX-M1 or EX-M1+. It has replaceable op amp sockets that allow you to switch out op amps and change the "voice" of the integrated. If it is too bright, you can start loading Burson V6 Vivid or Classic op amps to smooth out the sound.

ADD:  The Vincent Audio equipment is very excellent and refined sounding, but it is very warm sounding.  Great if that is what you want.

I think the Musical Fidelity is the best amp on your list but I am not sure if it is the right fit for B&W tonally.  

Sub $3K, I would look at the Parasound integrated.  I think that will give you the best sound match for your speakers.  

Why isn't anyone talking about Peachtree Nova 300? Awesome, powerful integrated with a great built-in DAC. $2,200

I run a Rogue Audio Pharoah with B&W CM10s for years . I just upgraded speakers to B&W 804D . The Pharoah is just a great piece of equipment ,with Mullard tubes you just can't go wrong. Plus the Phono stage is very good. Rogue Audio also stands behind gear 100%. 

I agree with crombie-sg3.
I have those speakers and I power them with a McIntosh MC7270.
The unit puts out a conservative 270 watts per channel. The only reason I am adding my 2 cents is they sound fantastic with a McIntosh. Simply marvelous! More then enough power and built like a tank.
My point is I bought the Mac used for $2300.00. I could sell it today at a little more then that.
You could not buy (new) a comparable unit today for that amount of money . So if buying used peaks your interest look for something that has been well taken care of. A service history is always a plus.
If a used McIntosh fits you idea of a good sounding amp check out the folks at Audio Classics. Highly reputable.. Might pay a tad more but their rebuilds and refurbish equipment is second to none..IMHO.

https://www.audioclassics.com/



P.S of the units you have listed I like the Rotel 1592. I've read good reports with it being matched with the 702's.

Agree with a Parasound Hint everything you need in one.

I didn't go thru all the postings. 

I would suggest you look for some pre owned integrated amp that can be had for 2-3k. There are plenty of good equipment available in this forum for that price. After that, look for some good pre owned cables to link up the equipment. All for the budget that you have set for yourself. Enjoy the setup for the time being. I'm sure you will improve that system as you get more into hobby and upgrade bug bites you. Then you will be more aware of what you can get from your setup.

Cheers!!

Congratulations for an impressive list of amplifiers and comments on each of them.
It seems the list does not include any 300B amplifier.
Of course such amplifiers have low power output and need speakers with sensitivities of 96dB or more.
Recently “Amazon” has been promoting a China-made 300B amplifier, Boyuurange A50 MkIII which seems to have received great user reviews and the amplifier costs only about USD 800.
I wonder if any member in the forum would like to comment on this.
Thank you.

I say this is the one for you... and the price is right too!!!

Check it out...

https://www.denon.com/en-us/product/amplifiers/pma-1600ne

Here you go KM1181 Anthem MRX 520 (CLOSEOUT SPECIAL) (PRICE REDUCTION) - StereoLand

Get yourself an Anthem MRX 520 or the new 540 AVR around $1500.00 it has pre outs for all the speakers which means you can get seperate power amps and use the AVR like a pre amp.Use the AVR for the surround speakers and get a Parasound NewClassic 2125 v.2 (400 WPC bridged mono) to run your center channel. $600.00Then get a  Parasound  NewClassic 2250 v.2 $999.00 (275 WPC) to run your front B&W 702 s2 speakers.
And you can even hook up 2 subs if you want or need more bass.Total cost around $3000.00 to $3200.00 USD Amplifiers - Stereo

Hi km1181,

I recently purchased a last gen model, the B&W CM9 S2. I started using the B&W with my Peachtree integrated and didn't experience any harsh highs. However, when I moved my existing KEFs to the home theater room to run with a current Sony 5.1 receiver, the KEFs became very harsh to my ears. The KEF Q150s are a net upgrade over the $60/pair Polk I was using in that space, but the Polks didn't sound harsh at all. The harshness is so bad, I seriously think about going back to the Polks. But I will more than likely upgrade to a nicer receiver or pre/pro w amp to see if I can tame the harshness in that system. 

Some of my takeaways are: (1) synergy is important; (2) Polk actually did a fantastic job voicing their entry level bookshelves to match the electronics that people would most likely pair them with; (3) the KEFs and B&W really can be harsh like people say. 

The OP in this other thread also complained of harshness for his B&W (https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/best-lower-end-cables-for-b-w-speakers). The OP there was hoping to solve the issue with new speaker cables. I pointed out that the likely culprit for him was the home theater receiver, not the speaker cables. 

So, assuming that our B&W models are sufficiently similar, I think a Peachtree integrated would make a good match for your speakers. Besides my experience matching B&W and Peachtree, there are a few technical reasons the two would be a good match theoretically. First, I've read that B&W likes very clean, low noise, SS equipment. Peachtree is those things. Second, many B&W speakers have a large impedance swing across the frequency spectrum--3ohm to 8ohm if I recall. And Peachtree in their marketing material state that their equipment handles a very wide range of impedance loads. Third, the newer Peachtree Nova's have a home theater bypass, which would be useful since you're looking to run surround in the future--good with your upgrade path. Fourth,  Peachtree amps have lot of watts, which is considered to be ideal for movies.

All TVs that I know have an optical output for audio. If you're running optical from a TV into an external DAC, I highly recommend a reclocker of some kind. I use an iFi Spdif reclocker in my stereo system between the streamer and DAC. It made one of the biggest differences in my system. I can't underscore the difference it made enough. I imagine a reclocker will be just important when connecting to a TV via optical. 

Hegel!

the Lyngdorf TDAI 1120 would fit the bill..  I have one paired with some monitor audio gold bookshelf speakers and the combo is not harsh or too bright.. excellent streaming amp and highly flexible including option for home theater use.. the digital processing and sound from the Lyngdorf products is superb.. I have been won over by this integrated amp.. it’s not a brand you’ll hear in this forum a lot but worth a look 👍🏼..

Lots of strong options at your pricepoint, esp used (amps perhaps an esp, good bet, on second hand market).  Again, being clear on needed power and features will narrow the huge field.

With blackbag20 on Odyssey, if you want some power.  Had a Stratos Dual Mono for some time that I regret selling (I'm not sure what I would do with it, since I'm now a lower power guy, but it was just that nice.)
Klaus is a nice and helpful guy, and could work with you on upgrades which would still have you well within budget.  Fun project, but might take some time.

Might check out the Vincebt SV-237 integrated. Sold by Audio Advisor. A hybrid having tube preamp and SS amplifier.

Cyclops anyone?

https://odysseyaudio.com/cyclops-integrated-amplifier/

For the price, there are few that can best this beast!!  

I own a pair of 705 signatures and have paired them with the NAD M10. Very happy with the sound as well as all the features of the M10. The combo provides a very open/transparent sound with great soundstage. Bass is enough for me but if you are really into deep bass you might want to add a sub. It supports that as well. If you want to play vinyl you will need to add a preamp phono stage. As always, best advice is to listen for yourself! Good luck!

I would go with the parasound hint6 integrated for them at least they will be driven correctly.

I recently purchased a secondhand NAD M32; color me impressed. You can definitely get a used one under 3k, or refurbished from safe and sound (NAD dealer).

The NAD M10 is not just an integrated amp: DAC, Phono, streamer, Dirac.  But I was disappointed with it; I thought it was straining to drive Vandersteen 2Ce Signatures.  I like the M33 much better (but almost 2x as much money).

B&W speakers are rather power hungry. I’ve ran them with a McIntosh mc275, 120 wpc Emotiva and Rotel amps as well as a 300wpc XPA2. The more power, the better the results producing a much fuller sound.  A Rotel RC-1572 preamp with an Emotiva XPA 2 is a great combo for those speakers. 

I had the 705 s2's.  I found that running NOS Mullards on the preamp helped quite a bit on the highs.  An integrated with a tube preamp would help tame those highs, IMHO.

I owned these speakers up until 2 months ago when I went from 5k speakers to 15k speakers. I loved the 702 s2 and was sad to see them go. Would purchase again in a hearbeat if I had secondary room needs.That being said, I powered them with Emotiva pre-amp and power amp at 300 WPC which just happened to be the max power rating on the 702 s2. Loved the sound.... check it out. Hope you bought the upgraded version of the702 s2 that just came out this year....... Nice

op

musical fidelity amps are very well built, excellent value, excellent performance

in my experience they are voiced to play a little brighter, sharper than the others i mentioned

everyone’s taste in how bright/shimmery a system sounds varies, so m-f pieces are certainly worth a try if the trial can done easily... but i would venture to say in the case of b&w’s known for being highly sensitive to any treble brightness fed to them, it is better to stay with the ultra refined sounding amp brands i listed

good luck happy listening

"...You could save yourself some money if you go with Musical Fidelity by getting the M5si rather than the M6si..."

I totally agree. In fact I'm running Maggie .7s with an M3si and it has a lot of guts, it's as loud as I want to play. 

You could save yourself some money if you go with Musical Fidelity by getting the M5si rather than the M6si (especially if you don't need XLR inputs).  Still has 150wpc and will drive your speakers louder than you'd ever want to listen.

i concur w recommendations already mentioned ... w4s, hegel... and would add ayre and pass labs (pricier, but similarly very refined sound)... might also consider a used devialet unit... lovely warmth and body to the sonics

I have a Hegel H160 with a pair of 707s. There is no offensive HF distortion, which B&Ws will all too easily broadcast with poor cabling and electronics. I also tried it with my JBLs  with same results. It is nice sounding amp 

I've heard the 704 S2. To my ears, they are a very articulate speaker with a "fast" sound. The only downside is a bit of harshness in its high frequency response.

The Parasound Halo Hint 6 is a nicely warm sounding integrated amplifier that should match up well with the more forward nature of your 704 S2 speakers. It sounded good with Monitor Audio Silver 300s, but was too relaxed and lacking pace with a warmer, softer sounding pair of Paradigm Reference 95F speakers. Your 704 S2 are even a little more forward than my Silver 300 speakers so I imagine the Parasound Halo Hint 6 would also pair well with your speakers.

oops, my bad, forgot you said integrated. :)

How about a Rogue ??

Wyred for Sound STI 500.  

@mesch I have a movie room but it is not a dedicated home theater, and is just the living room that has a short hallway leading to the kitchen and the rest of the house. It is about 18 x 24 with vaulted ceilings but I will only be sitting about 9 feet away since I have a smaller TV. I am fine with 2 channel for HT as long as the phantom center works well enough and it has the option to add a subwoofer.

I would take the 5.1 receiver out of the mix if you want good 2 channel. 
3k puts you in used Lyngdorf 2170 territory. With the 90db sensitivity I think it would sound fantastic. The Lyngdorf room correction is no joke. Also if you have a DAC you are using could sell that. 

MF M6si is the winner in that group. 

I recommend warm amps with those speakers, but most go the other way.

The small Parasound A series would work really well.

Looks like your speakers are tolerably efficient, at 90db.  Depending on listening volumes, room size etc., it's likely you could get away with less power, and invest in fewer, better watts.
I'd probably figure out exactly what my power requirements are, and widen my search.
Do you want "just" an integrated, or one with DAC etc.?

The amount of power will depend on room size. What is it?

You might find that 2-channel will work fine for movies. Do you have a dedicated music/theater room?