Shopping for an integrated, advice s'il vous plait.

I have a Rogue Sphinx V2 paired with MA Silver 8s (rx6 lineage) and I'm very pleased with its performance. It's very detailed, dynamic and neutral. 

I used to have a Yamaha AS-500 paired with my MA speakers, it was able to drive them well with most music. The nice feature of the Yamaha amps is that you can use both sets of speaker posts to bi wire the speakers, even 4 ohm speakers! It made a noticeable difference compared to using single runs. Yamahas are very neutral and quiet.

The Rogue is highly rated in many publications and reviews. Though it's better than the Yamaha, I'd quantify it as only 10% better, despite a $1k price gap.
For me, the difference is justified, but it might not be for someone on a really tight budget.

IMO, the hill of diminishing returns becomes very steep beyond the $1200 range.

@helomech

IMO, the hill of diminishing returns becomes very steep beyond the $1200 range.

I agree with you wholeheartedly on that point. My budget isn't tight per se, it's just that I know my speakers aren't going to resolve anything much beyond amps in the 1500 range. 

My hk3490 actually miraculously came back to life, after I paid $40 to have to assessed by a technician of course. It was going into protection mode and turning off every time I flipped the power switch. I confirmed it wasn't an outlet issue or short before taking it in, of course. No idea. Anyway, I'm not sure I trust it anymore so I'm still looking for a replacement, though not being under pressure to buy has given me time to step back and further assess my options.

I was looking at the a-s1000 simply because it seemed like the best bet for 'I need to order an integrated today,' but it's not necessarily an integrated I can see myself never wanting to upgrade from. That would be the a-s1100. I actually saw it on sale at Amazon for $2k when I first started shopping, but now it's back up to 2.5k, sigh. I've seen some a-s2100's go for roughly $1500 on eBay, so maybe if a deal like that comes up again I'd go for it. Now the waiting game begins. 

PS - I have nostalgia for the comforting, hypnotic glow of the vu meters on my grandfather's receiver in his den, where I spent many hours of my childhood. It was a Yamaha, which explains my proclivity. I was willing to go without vu meters if I had to, but now that I can be pickier I don't think I'd consider anything without them. I know this is a purely emotional decision, but that is part of the fun of the hobby for me.

I would second the Anthem 225i.  Powerful, exceptionally low noise floor, very versatile, solid build so it should last a long time, accurate but musical sound for a solid state amp.  The only flaw in the ointment is the remote control of the volume which is not very fine so it makes too large of jumps.  This may not be a problem with inefficient speakers but with the very efficient Spatial Holograms I run it is a pain.  For digital I end up using my DAC for fine volume control.  

Can't go wrong with the Yamaha IMO