Montana Speakers? Have they fizzled out?

Maybe take a look at Liberty Audio. Peter has a new amp there that sells direct and may be in your price range, and obviously it should have some synergy with PBN speakers since he builds both. Doubt it would add any warmth though if that's what you need or are looking for. Best of luck.

NCore based (Merrill Audio) and H2O amps both sounded great on my WAS-2. Was with a tube preamp though, FWIW.

Other pieces of equipment in the chain are a Lector Zoe pre-amp and a Raysonic CD-128 CD player. Personally, I think all of these pieces are fine in their own right but, as I mentioned before, it may be a synergy issue or, probably more likely, the room.

I have a pair of ESPIIs and have always wondered why they were not discussed much on this forum. The sound, to my ears, is very musical and I cant imagine trading "up".

NOT!! The best loudspeaker on the planet. Period!!