What tier do you consider Anthem integrated?

@mesch, thanks. All that is correct except I may prefer a tower that wouldn't overpower the room *too much (ha ha) (instead of bookshelf. monitors). My thought Is that being in an apartment a subwoofrr to augment  bookshelves may irritate the neighbors. I'd rather have a quality tower and sacrifice some extreme low end, but also, some monitors might suprise me even without a sub. I currently have an external old Parasound zdac, but it's not much better than the one in the node 2i.

@Kota1 suggested getting room correction via the martin logan unison streamer. I could sell my Node and get the other streamer that includes ARC. Previous speakers were revel f208 and salk songtower. Revel overpowered the room wit 2 8" woofers per side, and songtower had great clarity and low end extension but sounded to bright and forward on certain songs, but mostly, those drivers were too small for punchy midbass on rock and stuff like Jack white, NIN, etc.

The current system is "great for the price" and I believe I'll have to spend a lot more than i paid to noticeably exceed how it works in my room. It's cheap but it works. Yamaha A-S500 integrated with node 2i. Parasound zdac. Cheap Bluejean and wire world cables with Acoustic Energy Aegis 3 speakers is what I currently have.

I had Robert Hartley's book. Loaned it to a buddy of mine and never got it back in spite of repeatedly asking for it. (I hate loaning stuff. I gotta stop that).

Also, I'm not attached to any of the pieces. I'll sell it all off or just replace it..

@recklesskelly, I am unable to really audition much of anything that Best Buy doesn't sell. (Even then, half those guys can't get it to work). So, no, I haven't heard anthem or pass stuff, and even if I did, I wouldn't know what part was the amp and what part was the speakers attached to it. I've heard a few McIntosh systems that were nice, and a few that were "not so much my cup of  Mac stuff is pretty expensive anyway. So that's probably a wash. The Mac I liked had warmth and detail without being overly clinical and revealing. The Mac I didn't like was too warm. Veiled and mushy. As a whole. I think most of the Mac stuff I've heard was a little too warm or soft. I don't want hyper clinical, but I do want articulate,  crystal clear musical just on the warm side of neutral. The Anthem just seemed like it would be a good piece that would work with a lot of different things while offering value. If I ever decided to sell some of my equipment or upgrade. It would be nice if the stuff i had would hold enough value on the second hand market to be worth more than 3% of what I paid for it. @soix if I buy speakers first, I'll have a hard time upgrading the current amp I have because I'll spend everything on speakers and buy Dynaudio confidence or those triangle signature Delta or something else silly that won't work well with my Room. I'd blow it all on speakers and not upgrade the other stuff. I know that doesn't make sense and it's not right, but I'd be more included to buy better speakers for my amp than better Amp for my speakers. Lol. Guess I need more discipline and direction.

Also, nothing against Mac owners.. Saying it was mushy and veiled as an over -exaggeration but that particular system that I was referring to was old and not properly maintained.

I hear you on the pre-owned market, it is dog eat dog. I think I would roll with the Anthem and or a good used Simaudio like a 340i or even the 250i as they have all the characteristics you are looking for. I would say Norma also but rare to find those second hand. 

Good luck on your quest.