Did you ever find a nice vintage integrated/receiver?
Mentioned the Rogue Cronus before, I think.
Cronus
Never heard it, but the E-Zine reviews are favorable.
Being able to self bias each power tube is a nice feature as you won't have to worry about closely matched pairs (big savings in the long run).
Cheap/good SS would be a Magnum IA-170SE (one just sold here for $399), but they don't show up very often.
It has a MM phono and a mono switch.
The English Magnum company is out of business, as far as I know, though the SE versions were most likely manufactured this century and should be reliable for some time to come.
Kind of a mystery (never seen an online review) is the inexpensive Norh SE 18, which is $795 delivered per the website.
SE 18
My favorite guilty pleasure is an early/mid 80's Carver MXR-130 receiver.
The phono section didn't sound right @ first, but it came around with a few months use.
Dawned on me that the phono section had never been used when I picked it up 4-5 years ago (it had been installed in a clothing store with two Nakamichi 700ZXE cassete decks).
Picked up one of the decks as well, but ended up selling it after transferring a few tapes to CD.
Mentioned the Rogue Cronus before, I think.
Cronus
Never heard it, but the E-Zine reviews are favorable.
Being able to self bias each power tube is a nice feature as you won't have to worry about closely matched pairs (big savings in the long run).
Cheap/good SS would be a Magnum IA-170SE (one just sold here for $399), but they don't show up very often.
It has a MM phono and a mono switch.
The English Magnum company is out of business, as far as I know, though the SE versions were most likely manufactured this century and should be reliable for some time to come.
Kind of a mystery (never seen an online review) is the inexpensive Norh SE 18, which is $795 delivered per the website.
SE 18
My favorite guilty pleasure is an early/mid 80's Carver MXR-130 receiver.
The phono section didn't sound right @ first, but it came around with a few months use.
Dawned on me that the phono section had never been used when I picked it up 4-5 years ago (it had been installed in a clothing store with two Nakamichi 700ZXE cassete decks).
Picked up one of the decks as well, but ended up selling it after transferring a few tapes to CD.