Looking for a simple system

Go KEF active speakers!  So many advantages ...

I already have some active speakers so I am not interested in Powered Kefs.  The are the cabasse pearl akoyas

The owner and creator of Aerial Acoustics worked closely with Gato, and highly recommends the pairing.

Try Aerial 5T, 6T or 7T speakers.

I've never heard the other but did own the Studio II. It's an interesting speaker that I ran with a Coda Csib 150 wpc. The speaker is very power hungry because it uses, I believe, a subwoofer for the bass and mids. I've never seen someone run a sub for mids but the result is a very tame speaker, little fatigue, full body sound. 

I did eventually want more fleshed out mids than this speaker could deliver. Now in the defense of the speaker, I had come off a fatigue, bright ear speaker, so the laid back nature was welcome, it just became too relaxed and I stopped listening as much.

Good luck with your search.

There are exceptional used Tube Integrated’s in today’s market. I’d start there, save some money and then select speakers. I’d forget all about streaming. I’d spend my money on cd’s or vinyl, or like I have, both.

When you left 20 years ago the internet market was outstanding for used audio gear.
 

It’s still that way. Everyday I see a lot of great used gear listed on USAudioMart, and much of it is going dirt cheap, some as low as 30% of retail. And get this, much of it over a 6 month period hasn’t sold.

So it’s never been a better time to start an audio system. And I’ve bought used gear for 35 years and not once had a problem. The smart money is on used gear, for as you know, if you buy it new, once you’ve driven it off the lot, you’ve lost money!