Personal amp evolution

Fisher 400 tube receiver, Amber Black Series 70 (early model), Adcom 545 (inadvertant downgrade - I read too many reviews!), Bryston 2B, Forte 4a, Conrad Johnson 11a, Conrad Johnson Premier 12 monoblocks..

Then, after reading so many great reviews of integrated amps I decided to see how far I could down-grade and be happy. Close - these are excellent amps but not quite my resting point - were Magnum 208, Mistral LFD SE, Plinius 8200 II (VERY CLOSE).... Now I seem to be quite content with my Cary SLI-80 running in triode, although Tuesday my friend is bringing over his BelCanto SET40i ... we shall see.

BTW, preamps include early Amber and PS Audio models, 3 generations of Audible Illusions (great stuff!), CJ 17LS (wonderful!), and then, ohhhh, and then, I tried the First Sound Deluxe (whatever that $4000 model is called). WOW.

If I do go back to separates it will be to use the First Sound to drive damn near anything.....

Art

Amber Series 70, Adcom 545 (succumbed to hype alas), Bryston 2B, Forte 4a, Golden Tube SE100 briefly, Conrad Johnson 11a (VERY nice!), Conrad Johnson 12 monoblocks (WOW). Then tried to downsize: MD 208 receiver, Audio Analogue Puccini (nice), LFD Mistral SE (very nice), Plinius 8200 II (very very nice, still not up to my CJ 11a), now settled in on Cary SLI-80 (triode mode, this is the one to "marry"). Sticking with tube integrateds for now, as the smallest footprint (financially and physically) that I can be really happy with. (with fond memories of my CJ days...)
Art

Fisher 400 receiver
Original Amber preamp and amp (for around a decade, these kept me SO happy, but I accidentally shorted out the amp and it was not repairable, so....)

Adcom 545 (big sonic step backward, alas, based on excellent reviews, argh!)
Forte 4a with PS Audio preamp (nice)
Forte 4a with Audible Illusions M3 (better)
Bryston 2 (or was it 2a?) with AI M3, later M3a (better)

Conrad Johnson 11a (huge improvement, score!)
Conrad Johnson Premier 12 monoblocks (tighter, more authority)
adding Conrad Johnson 17 LS preamp
toyed wiht First Sound Premier Deluxe II preamp (should have bought one..)

This was my sonic high water mark.

Then I got the DOWNGRADE bug. I decided to try out integrateds, big time. After reading so many raving reviews of cheap solid state integrateds and tiring of maintaining tubes... (Sam, are you seeing this?)

LFD Mistral (wonderful but not as lifelike as tubes)
Plinius 8200 mk II (wonderful but not as lifelike as tubes)
M something, model 208 receiver (nice but not nearly as lifelike as tubes)

Ok, what about tubes.....
Cary SLI-80 integrated, after heavy tube rolling, NICE. Have stuck with this.

DK VS-1 Mk II (NO, NO, did you have to bring that up ; - )
Actually the DK is my favorite non-SET integrated to date, but the looks don't really work in my living room. And, you do have to tube roll and leave it on constantly. It betters my Cary in authority and bass control, by a wide, wide margin, while being reasonably close in overall naturalness and offering better detail and bite. Sigh.

I expect to go back to tube separates.

Sigh.
Art