What is your source? I was in about the same boat as you describe. I had Marantz 125wpc receiver driving Focal 918s with an old Pioneer multidisc changer.
This year I bought a rebuilt older H/K Citation 16a that is rated 150wpc. The amp made quite a difference in overall sound for the $ spent.
I recently bought a Sony 5400 cd player and it made a huge difference. My system was very tiring to listen to with the Marantz because I would have to turn it up so loud to get certain sounds and then as different aspects of the song would kick in it would be complete overkill...just loud! The Sony seemed to level things out and decrease my desire to always turn it up.
With that being said I would shop around and buy an amp you can afford...then go from there. I am looking at preamps now for 2 channel setup. I have stopped using my center channel speaker since I got the Sony. It sounds best in the pure direct mode.
This year I bought a rebuilt older H/K Citation 16a that is rated 150wpc. The amp made quite a difference in overall sound for the $ spent.
I recently bought a Sony 5400 cd player and it made a huge difference. My system was very tiring to listen to with the Marantz because I would have to turn it up so loud to get certain sounds and then as different aspects of the song would kick in it would be complete overkill...just loud! The Sony seemed to level things out and decrease my desire to always turn it up.
With that being said I would shop around and buy an amp you can afford...then go from there. I am looking at preamps now for 2 channel setup. I have stopped using my center channel speaker since I got the Sony. It sounds best in the pure direct mode.