McIntosh with Klipsch Palladium P17B

From Stereophile:

The P-17B's claimed sensitivity is 94dB

The P-17B's tweeter may have been a bit too airy. It seemed to blend incredibly well with the midrange driver, sounding very neutral through the low and mid-treble, then rose slightly in response through the 11–15kHz range. A hot response in this band doesn't usually result in a hard-sounding treble; instead, it adds the feeling and sound of "air" around instruments. Many older listeners may welcome the way the P-17B did treble—it could add back a little of the high-frequency range that time has taken from their ears. However, since many pop engineers and producers already overcook these frequencies—the ubiquitous +10dB bump at 10kHz given most pop vocals comes to mind—sometimes the Klipsch gave me too much of a good thing.

When the Klipsches and Manley played together, I got too much of a good thing: While the sound was never shrill or hard, it had a little too much of that airy treble quality. My low-powered and mellow-sounding Pass Labs Aleph 3, on the other hand, never sounded as clear or as powerful as through the efficient P-17Bs.

Don't get tubes, get solid state MC-152. 

@djmika 

Thanks for posting, do you have any opinion on the Mac MB-50 streamer? I use Play-Fi around the house and was thinking about that unit. Thanks

@djmika 

Thanks, I already have a bluesound node and a pardigm link (which I use as a playfi transport) and a Sony TAZH1ES dac. The MB50 can be found preowned for around $1500 and I could use it as either a transport, a dac, or a pre. I was thinking about just getting one at a good deal to compare.