Power Amp for newbie

While several people point out that Aragon, McCormack and some other amps would be better, the weak link that I see is the preamp. I'm not familiar with the sound of the CDP, but have heard that it can be very bright, lean and harsh sounding. I have owned an Acurus Audio L-10 preamp, and if its performance (coherent & detailed, but very lean, analytical and a bit harsh...with a ST-140, no less!) is indicative of the Acurus pre's, I'd definitely upgrade that unit. Buy a used A150 amp $350-500, and use the money saved to upgrade the preamp...the amps are a great value. Maybe an inexpensive DAC (Adcom GDA-600/700) to help smooth the "edges" on the CDP.

I agree with Martice, an Acurus amp with the other Acurus gear may tend to sound a bit bright/harsh (I've owned some of it). I'd lean toward an amp that was a bit more laid back, like a B&K or Aragon if you have the money.

Either stick with the ACURUS setup and get the power amp to match the rest of the system.Or go for ARAGON or SONOGRAPHE which is made by Conrad Johnson.

Quite apart from brands and price points, I'd advise you to at least look into the possibility of monoblock power amps. I used conventional stereo amps for decades, some very good ones included, but after trying a couple kinds of monoblocks I'll never use anything else. My speaker cable length came down from 7' to 18", and the improvement was enormous! I'm now using a pair of Pass Aleph 3's, which gets about $2000 at used prices, but cheaper monoblocks can be had.

You cannot go wrong with Acurus gear,but,personally I'd save up a little longer and wait for a deal on an Aragon 8002 or 8008. The slight increase in price rewards you with a significant increase in overall quality. My first amp was an Acurus, than an Aragon, and now a Krell. At the time I first got into audio there was no real marketplace for used equipment. So I had to be subject to paying retail as I moved my way up. Take advantage of this website and skip the Acurus. The natural progression seems to be an Aragon next anyway. If I could do it again I'd go for the Aragon first!

My dealer gave me Kimber 4PR when I bought my CD player. Since I have no $$ invested there, I'm open to change in that arena if the experienced ears have suggestions. I live in the boonies, so auditioning requires significant pre-planning.

A Classe CA100 would work well and often available for $650 -$800 used .

Thump, I've owned the Acurus RL-11 and I presently own the ACD-11 CD player that is used as a transport presently. It's nice to assume that if you purchase all of the same brand that you should have some magical synergy but in my experience that is not the case most of the time. Anyway, based on the rest of your equipment I would recommend the B&K EX4420 power amp. It has a very dark tonal quality about itself and would help to offset the high tonal quality that the Acurus line of products tend to have. What cables are you using by the way?

A McCormack DNA .5 can be had for that price and would be an excellent choice.

The Rogue 88 is a great piece of gear for the money.800/1000 used gets you one.You can do better but more lickly to do worse in that price range.

Nothing wrong with Acurus for the price. There is a Creek A52SE amp for sale from a dealer on this site for $650. List is over $1K. It got great reviews in HiFi Choice Magazine. Creek is classic "British" sound. Mike Creek designed the wonder Cambridge Audio A3i amp and decent T500 Tuner.

HI Thump Looks like a Acurus A200 might be your answer. You will have the synergy you need with your other Acurus gear. Check around I'm sure there is one on this site. BTW you might want to look for a used Aragon 2004 or 4004 amp. A lot better sonics with the Petites you have. Best of luck.