Kef LS50

Hegal

Luxman

Pass

many more ...

What don't you like about staus quo?

sorry Hegel ... hehe

Small treated room, seated 8 feet away, the Musical Fidelity A220 SS Class A integrated sounds sweet through my LS50's.

Unlikely that an amp change will make a substantial or fundamental change. But if you're sensing something is missing consider acoustical treatment for your room. That can make a staggering improvement in your listening experience for a relatively small investment. 

In my living room, which has a lot of glass on 3 sides and no possibility of curtains, we used 2ft2 2" panels on the ceiling to try and tame things down. Even covering less than 50% of the area, we noticed a huge improvement in sound quality, as well as a quieter environment overall.  In the music room/theater, a full room package with bass traps was installed, and even casual visitors notice the sound quality is great. 

I used the Peachtree Nova 150 with a LS50 for about 3 years. If your room is small, then getting it acoustically treated will give you the biggest bang for the buck. I used GIK Accoustics for that ($700).

With some experimentation with the NOVA 150, I learned that the amp section of it is pretty good relative to the preamp and DAC. The preamp and DAC sections are lacking. Overall, the best thing about the NOVA 150 for me was the price. It is good for the price.

I tried an all-Benchmark system with the LS50, a LA4 preamp, DAC3B, and AHB2 amp ($6500 total and small form factor). This was so much better than the Nova 150. I may be using this setup with a future KEF Blade, that is how much I like it.

A CODA CSiB integrated was not as crystal clear as the BM stack, but it was also way better than the Nova 150. The CSiB lacks a DAC but a Topping D90SE at $800 is much better than the DAC in the NOVA 150.

A KRELL K-300i integrated with internal DAC is killer with the LS50 but not cheap. It has the first 90 watts in Class A. I love the new KRELL XD lineup. I sold the K-300i to buy the KRELL 175XD stereo amp. That was because I loved the sound of the K-300i.

.