Help me find my ideal Stereo Integrated Amp

I know they don't have phone inputs, but if I were in your shoes, I'd strongly look at the new Hegel H400 and H600 integrated amps. I've heard the H390 a lot at a client's house, and just got to hear the new H600 which he upgraded to. Speakers were Revel Salon 2s, and Tannoy Kensingtons.

At this point in my life I prefer separates, but I could live with the H600.

Hi from New Zealand :) If you are willing to adjust your price target a bit, I think the new T+A R2500R from Germany is everything you could ever want in a single box unit. Best all in one I have ever heard! Great streamer, dedicated PCM and DSD DAC’s, HDMI, Phono, very good relay volume control & class AB that can handle 2 ohm no trouble. T+A also offer streaming hardware upgrades, which ensures future proofing for all-in-one units with the ever changing streaming landscape. Yes, higher price than you asked for, but well worth the stretch if you can in my opinion. Different league to Hegel (Ive owned the H390)

Happy Listening :)

If you were willing to have an outboard streamer, the AR i/50 has everything else you want.

Musical fidelity m6si or above meets that criteria.  I own one and it’s a rock solid beast of a performer 

Check out the new Hegel H400.  I have the H390 and it is really good for the money and the H400 is getting nothing but great reviews.

All the best.

"I think a lot of people here have been very successful and are retired and have a lot of time and money to spend and are one or two zeros ahead of me..."

Not me. Sometimes I think my only hope is reincarnation...

You should look at the PS Audio Stellar Strata MkII. It's $3500 and fills all your requirements. At this time they have a sale going on which includes their Airlens streamer, a $2000 item, included for free.

https://www.psaudio.com/products/stellar-strata-mk2

Maybe underpowered at 150W into 8 ohms, <1% THD; 280W into 4 ohms, but I’m going to suggest Aesthetix Mimas.

Most integrated DACs are okay to subpar, so it usually best to get a separate DAC. Integrated phono is usually minimally satisfactory. But the Aesthitix Mimas optional DAC and phono cards are sonically superior. Aesthetix has been around a long time with a great sonic reputation. Missing is the streamer option, but extremely few audiophile quality integrates have it.

The Hegel H390/H590 has good DACs, the H600 an notably better DAC, but don’t offer phono or streaming.

Other integrated choices at the 10k price point the DAC sonics would be notably inferior, maybe a good trade off if the OP decides that features (having DAC, phono, streamer in one case) are more important than best sonics.

The Hegel H600 is a lovely box that should do it all and well. 

True the Anthem has no streamer, but with tech formats changing so fast it's probably better to use a separate. Your budget has plenty of room for a separate streamer anyway. 

+1 on Anthem STR integrated.

My son has one and it’s great sound with very good DAC and phono pre. He streams from a node but uses the digital out b/c he prefers the Anthem’s DAC. Has a boatload of digital inputs and RCA XLR analog. Around half your budget but Stereophile Class A. Easy to set up and use. Worth a listen. 

You might want to take a look at Advance Paris X-i1100 integrated amplifier. I think it checks most of the boxes that you're looking for. Good luck on your search mate.

@livinon2wheels 

We all sold our soul to the devil for righteous bucks to buy our stuff. I also have an invisibility cloak so when I die the devil can’t find me! 

Thank you for the Lyngdorf tdia3400 recommendation, it has everything I am looking for. My short list currently stands as: 
1A. NAD M33

1B. Lyngdorf tdia3400

2. ARCAM SA45 (a bit less power than I am looking for, but worth looking into I think)

+1 to @jomonhifi for the Diablo recommendation, that will sound fantastic.  Unfortunately, that path can be a bit of a Snipe hunt because there aren't very many 300s that come up used.  Another consideration would be a new Hegel H400 (no phono stage) and add the Hegel V10 phone stage, all in new for $8700.  I have a lot of friends with very high end vinyl rigs and they love the sound and flexibility of the Hegel phono stage.  Keep in mind that most built in phono stages are more of a convenience than a critical listening path.  Good luck and cheers. 

@oddiofyl I appreciate that way of thinking too, and try not to buy 'cheap.' Not that spending a lot of money results in tangible improvements necessarily, but by choosing something that has comparable specs to more expensive equipment but perhaps gives up some feature that I probably wouldnt use anyway because of the way I listen. And while I know this may open up a bag of worms with some who might read this, all of my old equipment had bass and treble controls that could be invoked with any source connected to the system and I appreciate the subtle effect that can have. All of the new receivers or pre/processors I have seen have no tone control other than some kind of built-in room correction. Lets be clear, I am talking about a 5.2 surround system. I wont be doing ceiling speakers for atmos. No one seems to offer this most basic form of tone shaping for ANY surround sound system. Using room correction software is inconvenient because, as far as I know, none of those response shaping tools can be invoked on the fly while listening, unlike a bass and treble control. I purchased an Emotiva MR-1L receiver to test out the concept of using room correction software and see first hand how well or poorly it worked. Lets just say I am NOT a fan. Too time consuming, less than wonderful results, channel balance is awful, I can do better by ear but it takes a LOT of tweaking to get to a place where the response corrections fit a curve that sounds good, Overall its a great receiver with a few quirks that irk me, I will have to spend clearly more, a lot more, to get functionality that doesn't irk me. Due to the generally poor amplifiers in most receivers offered today, particularly at MR-1L's price point, its clear I am going to have to go upscale quite a bit...The only one that appears to tick all the boxes is the Marantz AV-10. And then add amplifiers to suit. By the time I have done that, I have close to 10K in just a processor and amplification.....Or go completely in the other direction and by the Schiit 5.1 channel processor for $400 that does everything in analog and follows NONE of the modern formats. It converts any 2 channel source into 5.1 in the analog domain and provides a satisfactory listening experience for movies (if you believe the reviews) and music as well. Not sure how much Schiit I would be buying if I went that route, but the idea of not having to keep up with the ever more complicated Dolby standards and yet have a pleasant and rewarding movie experience anyway is more than a little appealing. Certainly financially and possibly sonically. So its a quandary...with either choice external amps are required. I could be all in on the amplifiers via Emotiva for about $2000 if I was willing to settle for 200 wpc, and nearly $4000 to double that and have the Schitt processors for 400 and be all in for something over half the price of the $7000 Marantz. Or marry digital and analog together by buying an Emotiva TA1...to use as a DAC - It gives me FM radio, A phono input, an optical input, real tone controls, preamp ouputs to send to the Schitt processor and then to the amps and I am in for most of the electronics I need for under $3000 or $5000 with high power amps. So I could have FM, TV, and another source (streaming or CD) plus Phono and be a modern 'old school' mostly analog and never have to concern myself with whatever the latest video codec is and whether I can decode it. The speakers in this system are yet to be decided and should be the topic of yet another post...so what would you guys do and why? Would you buy up to the AV-10 or buy some Schitt? Or go the Emotiva DAC route?

I had a Gryphon DIablo 300 that sounded amazing. You can find them occasionally here with the phono-stage module in your price range used. I did upgrade from there and sold mine for about $9500. I did compare it to a lot of other integrated amps - McIntosh - Hagel - Acuphase - Luxman - Moon. The only amp that sounded better to me was an Audio Research amp that I bought in the end. The Gryphon was tight - iron gripped - nuanced with a LOT of power..... I was driving a pair of Sonus Faber Serafino's at the time.

Good Luck...!

I'm not "well heeled" but I like to spend money on tangible things that give me years, sometimes decades of enjoyment.  I'm not one to hop on a plane and go somewhere , I would rather have something lasting.   Can't think of anything better than something like a MA9000 or 12000.  Those are great amps.   A little beyond my means but worth it if you can afford it. 

I buy used and new if I can and will almost always be selling what's displaced.   I'd rather save for a year or two than compromise.   I will usually stretch my budget to avoid buyer's remorse .  Buyer's remorse is almost always due to lateral moves.   If you avoid those you save in the end from not constantly rotating gear.   

Most of the forum is comprised of very well heeled buyers that punch way above my weight in purchasing power.

I think a lot of people here have been very successful and are retired and have a lot of time and money to spend and are one or two zeros ahead of me. But it's not a competition, it's just as easy to make improvements to my simple system from 2 zeros less as it is for very high end systems.

@livinon2wheels If you know where you want to be and you invest the time, you will get there.

It sounds like you know what you are doing - I don’t, I keep changing my system, I keep shrinking my budget by buying high and selling low and the sound is getting worse. But hopefully I learn something and it will get better

Most of the forum is comprised of very well heeled buyers that punch way above my weight in purchasing power.

@grislybutter - partly my reason for being here is to see what reasonable upgrade paths are and how to get more out of what i have. Also to see what’s available that has solid construction and reliability with decent performance. Im replacing most of my equipment and am not up to date on what is good now. Huge learning curve because i loved what i had before and most of that is no longer available. Modern day equivalents to what I had are hard to find. I cant assess equipment i cannot touch and hear, and bricks and mortar audio stores are scarce. It’s a quandry

Why does it have to do everything? With your budget, you can afford some flexibility.

@livinon2wheels you are not alone.

my budget is 100s of dollars. (I give away my disposable money to various causes, which serves my children better than an expensive piece of paperweight in my living room)

I just come here to daydream.

I think anything over 3K for a component is wild.

Yes I agree I used Macintosh MA 12000 or a used MA9000 

350 what's per channel for the 12000, 300 Watts for the MA 9000

Both have equalizers and both have a nice warm sound 

And sound amazing. 

The build quality is great. 

Built-in dac, ( mine is upgraded to the D2)  

I only used mine for 12 to 14 months.  ( Willing to sell).

You can't go wrong with McIntosh. 

Hit me up.

I'll send you photos 😁

seek out a used MA12000

Lyngdorf tdia3400 worth looking into. 

Parasound Halo Hint6 doesn't include a streamer or HDMI input, and is a little below your requested power range.  However, it does include a lot of things you didn't mention, but might find useful.  It's also $3999 new, which leaves you a bit of cash for a streamer.

Preamp and DAC Features

• ESS Sabre32 Reference DAC (ES9018K2M)
• Asynchronous USB 2.0 supports PCM up to 384kHz/32-bit
• USB input decodes Native DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 and DoP DSD
• Coax and optica inputs accept PCM up to 192kHz/24-bit
• Analog bass management with high & low pass crossovers
• Home theater bypass input for surround sound integration
• Front panel subwoofer level control
• Dedicated high current headphone amplifier (TI TPA6120)
• Phono input for MM, MC and MI with 100 Ω or 47k Ω load
• Front panel Aux input with automatic +12 dB gain stage
• 5 pairs RCA line level Analog inputs
• 1 pair XLR balanced Analog input
• Balanced XLR and RCA left and right preamp outputs
• 1 balanced XLR and 2 RCA subwoofer outputs
• Bass & treble controls with relay bypass from remote or front panel
• Rear panel IR input and IR loop output jacks
• 12 Volt trigger output
• Back-lit remote control with discrete buttons
• 0.5w standby power consumption meets Energy Star & EU specs

Power Amp Features

• 160 Watts x 2 @ 8 Ohms (RMS, both channels driven)
• 240 Watts x 2 @ 4 Ohms (RMS, both channels driven)

I have to ask, what do you guys do for a living that allows this level of disposable income for equipment? Its so far out of my playing field I cannot comprehend having that kind of budget.

all of this recommended equipment is so far out of my price range I can offer little guidance in that range...its totally beyond my experience. But as a point of reference, I have a TA-1 sold by emotiva that I really love. Its an integrated dac/pre amp with sub output and rca outputs to drive bigger amps if desired, but honestly it sounds wonderful thru the built in amplifier. Will it drive inefficient speakers to ear splitting levels? No, but it will drive them to reasonably loud and satisfying levels. It comes with a decent FM tuner and coaxial/optical inputs and a phono input as well and serves me nicely in an office system. If others are looking for a solution for that kind of environment, you'd be hard pressed to find something better at its price and probably at twice the price. I think this is currently offered at $499.00.

I’m personally like simple integrated with separate streamer w dac .

Hegel and Parasound and Billie would be my list

McIntosh MA9000, It has a photo stage dac but no streamer 

Cost of 11K new, But you can find them use for 9K or a little less 

You could buy a blue node streamer, all for under 10k 

I happen to have a McIntosh MA9000 with an upgraded dac

(D2)  😁,  sitting in my closet, I upgraded to separates.

Been wanting to sell it. 

I would not buy and integrated with a DAC or a Streamer, that $hit is going to change, so are connector types. I just had to say it.

@freediver You are correct the Hegel H600 has an MSRP of $12,500.  Are you the guy that paid the full price that one time?  🤣  As for not having a phono stage, my thought was if you're not caring about the quality of the phono, it could be added for a couple hundred and still be within the 10K budget.  Anyone interested in a higher end vinyl set up would most likely be looking at a stand alone phono stage?  So IMHO, someone looking at spending $10K, should consider the H600.  

Looks like the upcoming ARCAM SA45 ticks all the boxes although falling somewhat short on power (180W/300W, 8 ohm and 4 ohm respectively). It may come down to a decision between that one and the NAD. The two brands reportedly have different sound signatures (warmer and brighter respectively).

Lots of happy NAD Master Series folks.

Rotel RA 6000 Diamond Series. I have one available in black.

The new Hegel H190v might be something for you to check out.  It has all of the features you mentioned or with the H400 now out, you could check out the Hegel H390 and getting a phono preamp. I’m pretty sure getting a separate phono preamp will sound better than most built in ones.

All the best.

What will be your primary listening source, stream or vinyl?  When streaming, what is your preferred provider (some amps will do one but not an other service)?

Hey, there are some here who cannot appreciate the helpful suggestions given, and should stay out of this thread.

If you concentrate on the quality of sound and performance of the integrated amp, you might have to consider using a stand alone DAC and streamer as opposed to a do it all receiver.

Luxman and Accuphase make superb integrated amps.

NAD M33, as mentioned. Class D with Eigentakt Purifi design.

McIntosh MA8950. You will need a streamer.Class AB.

Gato very good service also and European quality.

1:  Audition the Devialet Expert 220 Pro listing at $10k.  It has all you’re looking for in a sleek Class D design.   
2:  Better IMHO is a preowned Mola Mola Kula.  It should come in may be at or a little above your budget.  It will be hard to find but not impossible if you are patient.  
3:  +1 on the Bel Canto E1X, another sleek Class D design.  

All will have different SQ characteristics.  All have more than adequate power to drive almost any speaker.  Audition a must.  Good luck.  

@freediver +1

@roadcykler it looks to me like it's 50/50 right down the middle between the non readers & the IDGAF crowd hahahahaaa!You really can't fix stupid or lazy!
OP:The NAD I recommended is a Stereophile Class A rated component for 2024..Here's the excerpt from their take:NAD Masters Series M33: $4999
This extraordinarily versatile amplifier incorporates a fully integrated BluOS streaming platform, sophisticated control options, Dirac room correction, analog line and MM/MC phono inputs, digital inputs, a headphone output, and an output stage based on the Purifi Eigentakt class-D technology developed by Bruno Putzeys. KR was impressed. Listening to a brass band recording, he found the M33's sound notably transparent. "There was a satisfying balance between the drum and tuba at the low end, the brashness of the upper brass, and the filigree of winds in between," he wrote, going on to say that "the soundstage was full and wide, and there was the impression of significant weight and body." "The M33, in one well-integrated and handsome box, replaces all the traditional components and can be operated from a smartphone or a tablet," concluded KR, adding "Keep your beloved speakers and let the NAD M33 do everything else. It will do it all superbly." On the test bench the M33 exceeded its specified continuous output power of 210Wpc into 8 ohms and delivered 460Wpc into 4 ohms. JA was impressed by the "excellent" phono stage and concluded that "NAD's M33 packs a lot of well-engineered performance into its relatively small chassis." The M33 was both Stereophile's Amplification Component of 2020 and the magazine's overall Product of 2020. (Vol.43 No.10 WWW)

@freediver  Almost weekly I read posts and shake my head. People ask specific questions with definitive parameters and there are always people who suggest items not within those parameters and sometimes way outside of them.

IDK if they don't really read the OP or just do what they want regardless of the info given. 

https://www.javahifi.com/review-product/integrated-amp-double

https://www.javahifi.com/review-product/integrated-amp-single

I have the single shot integrated and it's beautiful. It doesn't have the streamer but everything else and sounds wonderful too. Even the headphones amp is wonderful.