UK ba
Decided to forego a tube preamp for new system, seeing as Lumin now use Leedh- drawing up a shortlist of best warm or rich sounding amps up to £1200 to power 86db/1w speakers
Audiophonics purifi is around that price, no idea of sound signature. Op amps can be rolled tho.
Below that are Vidar and Nuprime STA-9 ..
What else?
Hi Mr Fingers
UK-based myself and also looking at changing my amp. I've tested numerous amps over the last 2 years from Sugden, Accuphase, Diavelet, Micromega, Quad, GamuT, Sanders, etc. but I've not found one better than the NAD M32 integrated.
This is shortly to be replaced by the M33 at £4000, but look what you get - a Purifi-based power amp, preamp, phono stage, DAC, streamer, headphone out and even Dirac room correction - all for £4K! Well beyond your £1200 budget, but possibly makes the Audiophonics power amp look costly. There'd be lots of stuff you could sell if you went for an all-in-one and think of all those cables you wouldn't need! And no cable has ever actually improved sound quality.
The NAD M32 is a brilliant DirectDigital amp and offers all the M33 does apart from built-in streamer (it's an optional plug-in module) and Dirac. There may be very good ones around when the M33 becomes available - including my own - PM me if interested!
Warm? Well you're welcome to come and take a listen in Portsmouth and judge for yourself - I certainly much prefer it to my 845-based mono SETs. Peter