Recommendation for amp & pre combo +- 3,000?

What speakers are you using?

Get an Ayre V3 and K3 preamp, avail. at your price used.

Audio Research LS-15, 16, 22 (~1400 used) and VT100 (~$1600 used)original version. Will be a really nice combination for the $$.

I have the choice of either the Monitor Audio GR 60's or the Dynaudio Contor 1.3 mk or Dynaudio Audience 88. Any suggestions on making this decion? Thanks. KB

I'd choose a Bat VK3i (tube) and VK200 (ss). The ARC and Ayre are good choices as well...

New or used?

You could try the Adcom GFP-750 preamp with something like the McCormack DNA-125 or Odyssey Stratos amp. If you can use a passive pre you might also consider the Placette. All of these products are clean and neutral and will let all the music come through. Or how 'bout this--the Adcom preamp with a used Bel Canto Evo 200.2? Ooh, this is getting serious.

Why are you limited to just those three speakers? Not that they aren't good, but there's a lot out there. Best of luck.

Tim

Dynaudio's perform best with an amplifier that has plenty of reserve power. While their crossover networks are very sophisticated, they tend to soak up as much as you can feed them. Sean
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an audio note integrated amp..(soro, I think) is a direct heated/single ended/class/pentode amp with 18 watts, can be had with a phono section or line, and sounds great. It is very powerful for the published power; I use the amp version (P2SE) to power a pair of Linn Keilidh speakers and they play just fine with all sorts of music and loud levels.
regards,
carl

The suggestions to look at the Ayre amp/preamp combo are good ones. I would also add the Bryston BP-25 preamp to your list, with either the Bryston 3B-ST or 4B-ST as the amplifier. The numerous audio mag reviews on Bryston's products can be read at the following Bryston Web site:
http://www.bryston.ca/revprod.html

Best regards.

I have to agree with Sean - the Dynaudio's will soak up lots of power. The more you can afford to feed them the better. The Monitor Audio's are a lot less fussy but you're talking two totally different sounding speakers.

My suggestion would be to ditch the idea of separates and get a really good integrated amp. You will save $$$ on interconnects and power cords.