UPDATE on my journey....
I bought the Forte IIIs and love them...even with my basic Yamaha RXV1000 receiver they sound awesome and are huge upgrades to the DefTechs. Wifey finally accepted the size of the Fortes is worth the sound quality.
Now waiting to receive the McIntosh MC2105 amp I bought this week here on Audiogon. Can't wait to hear what the Mac / Forte combo sounds like!
Now starting to think about preamp. I want to stick to McIntosh. So far I think I want a tuner / preamp combo.
Any suggestions? Only caveat is I need an output for a second zone as this is my whole house system and I have two Niles amps driving all my ceiling and outdoor speakers. I think this is not a problem with the vintage Mac stuff but let me know if I'm wrong. Would it be better to buy a more modern preamp that has zone 2? $1,000 is the target budget.
Help me out!