Thank you so much all for your valuable input. Of course it made my head spin at a faster than already insane rate ;-) I followed through all the suggestions and finally decided to persue Plinius 8200 MK2 - which I was told early in my hi-fi persuit to be a very musical and warm amp - much more so than their new 9xxx series. But I missed the Plinius 8200 MK2 offered at $1250 - it was sold in less than 2 days.
I saw a reasonable offer at audiogon for Sophiaelectric tube used . I decided to keep my Arcam A65+ Integrated and had my wife agree to get an all tube amp as a second amp for me. With capacitor upgrade and shipping - it is ~ $950. Yeah, it doesn't have remote or phono or several input but I was not getting all the features at my pricepoint in any other unit - so I'll keep SS int as main and use tubes as and when desired. Tubes is what I have been really dreaming of - I went all for it - while keeping all the features I wanted with the solid-state and use tubes as secondary - well that's the plan I may end up listening mostly to tubes. It is crazy but exciting.
www.sophiaelectric.com
Discussed my needs with owner Richard and found him very helpful and persuasive.
Cheers,
Thanks a lot
Sunil
I saw a reasonable offer at audiogon for Sophiaelectric tube used . I decided to keep my Arcam A65+ Integrated and had my wife agree to get an all tube amp as a second amp for me. With capacitor upgrade and shipping - it is ~ $950. Yeah, it doesn't have remote or phono or several input but I was not getting all the features at my pricepoint in any other unit - so I'll keep SS int as main and use tubes as and when desired. Tubes is what I have been really dreaming of - I went all for it - while keeping all the features I wanted with the solid-state and use tubes as secondary - well that's the plan I may end up listening mostly to tubes. It is crazy but exciting.
www.sophiaelectric.com
Discussed my needs with owner Richard and found him very helpful and persuasive.
Cheers,
Thanks a lot
Sunil