Sonus Faber Guarneri Memento's

The Copland CTA 405 is one of the best integrated amps i have heard at any price, and worth checking out.

I just spent the weekend auditioning audio with the thought of planning my future upgrades. One of the standouts was Ayre equipment. Though I was primarily looking at carts and speakers the Ayre I listened to from the entry end all the way through to thier highest end was breathtaking. What about the Ayre integrated matched to the CDP? I am not sure about the power issues but it might be worth a shot.

I am using Plinius 9200 with Memento (as well as Usher BE-718). As good as 9200 is, I will vote for tube amps. My main system is tube and I can not recreate the tube magic even with Memento. You can always start with something cheap like Cary or Rogue.

If you must use solid state, I also agree you should consider Ayre and Plinius. Ayre is probably more transparent and detail, but Plinius is probably more musical.

You don't need to sacrifice sound with small budget, you can always pick up older Forte 4A + 40 combo or McCormack DNA-1 & one of their passive line stage. Either combo should give you near state of the art sound for around $1k. In fact, I am willing to bet they sound better than Plinius or Ayre integrated. I do own the Forte combo and they give my SF Line 3SE + BAT 75SE a run for the money. I have never compared side by side my 9200 to the Forte because my systems are in 3 different countries, but I did heard Forte in my main system and I was speechless.

I would highly recommend an Audio Aero Capitole Mk11 run direct to a power amp. My Guarneri Homage are great with 60 watt tube monoblocks but I don't know what will work with Memento.

Perhaps you can consider the Accustic Arts Power 1 integrated.
I use it with SF Cremona Auditors and they make beautiful music.
Look up Positive Feeback and Soundstage. I believe they both have reviews on this amp.

Take a look at Pathos. I am using their classic ones in bridged mode with the concerto domus. They work very well. I imagine they would work well with any sonus faber speaker.

I know this is an older thread, a few months old but I have tried SEVERAL amps with my new Mementos. I ended up with a combo that blows me away everytime I power it up.

Cary AES Six Pacs with upgraded caps
Cary AES DJH signature preamp
Cambridge Audio 840C CDP (beat out my big $$$ Cary 306/200 for $1300)

Tried some solid state (Not good), tried Cary rocket 88R F1 (not enough power), tried a shanling amp but was too polite, tried McIntosh but was too smooth and lacked the detail, and i also tried a few more ranging from 41500 to $6k.

Best I found was the $2700 upgraded six pacs. I bought new. Bought the DJH and am extremely happy. $5k for my pre, amp and CDP and what I get from my Mementos is a huge soundstage, plenty of power (more than I need) and lush amazing mids with as much detail as I can ask for. This is the most musical sounding system I have ever heard, anywhere and sounds better than a $60k setup at one of my dealers shops.

Dont judge quality on price. Cary/AES make some AMAZING amps and pre's. One day I will upgrade to a SLP98 and I used to own one and man, that was heaven!