[indigosax]

Ok... Time to arm the diningroom and patio with sound.

Any suggestions for a good integrated.

It will be driving a pair of polk LSi7's and need to have an A/B switch to also drive a pair of Polk Atrium Outdoor speakers (not sure bout those yet...but if you ave a suggestion for a better outdoor speaker I would love to hear it.)

A good Can jack would be nice, but not a requirement.

The input will most likely be my Njoe Tjoeb 4000

 

[tom hankins]

jolida makes some nice sounding tube and hybred int. amps. maybe try to pick up a good arcam or creek at audiogon.

 

[drewski]

Roksan Caspian is a decent sounding integrated if you can find one used- decent dynamics at this price range, but just a hint of brightness on the top end, but still very good all around.

If you can step up just to around the $850 level, the Musical Fidelity A-3 is a very good sounding integrated. This has a very good top end and is very musical. The only complaint is that the bass can sometimes be a little loose. I'm not familiar with the polks, so this may or may not be a problem.

The only thing is that neither of these have A/B switches that I can remember.

Also, although I've never heard the newer ones, the NAD c370 integrated amp has all the features that you're looking for. I've never heard a NAD amp in over 15 years that I couldn't live with. They've usually been on the warm side, but very musical and enjoyable.

Another suggestion would be an Adcom GFA 535 amp, with some sort of passive attenuator. The 535 is a very decent sounding amp and can be had for around $150 these days (because they're over 10 years old). It has an A/B speaker selector button. The only thing is that because it's an older amp, the binding posts are funky and only support bare wire or pins. Also, isn't the Njoeb a modified Marantz player? Can the volume be controlled via the remote like many other Marantz players- you may be able to bypass the preamp if it does, so this would work if you were only going to go with a CD player.

Also, Tom Hankins' suggestions of the Arcam and Creeks are also great little integrated amps- lots of good value in used amps in that price range, just a matter of what's available when you're ready to buy. Good luck!

 

[indigosax]

Saw a McIntosh 6200 on ebay.... not a bad price.... any thoughts?

 

[indigosax]

yea the Njoe has a Vol control.

think I could just go to an amp?.... If so .... suggestions?

 

[lini]

The Marantz PM8000 could be worth a listen, too.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[drewski]

Quote:

Originally posted by indigosax yea the Njoe has a Vol control. think I could just go to an amp?.... If so .... suggestions?

This may work, but sometimes there are problems because of different factors like the input impedance of the amp and the efficiency of your speakers. Also, my marantz volume control doesn't go all the way down to where it's silent- even the minimum setting is very high when paired with my N.E.W. a-20 (20wpc class A) amp and my AKG k-1000's. I've had to resort to a preamp because it was too loud for me. Probably won't be a problem with speakers, but I don't want to mislead you.

 

[MoLtoSoLo]

Of course you can always get a Fisher 400.
You can do some research here, I believe it's one of the best tube amp around.
By the way, I have one for sale too

 

[peter braun]

You can get a Rega Mira for around that price range, or a Classe` CAP-80. Going with just a seperate amp and using the cd player to control volume would be an interesting alternative though.

 

[peter braun]

You might try one of these if want to go the route of just using a seperate stereo amp -

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...ran&1054316103

It was pretty highly regarded by Stereophile as I remember (class B), and would make a nice match as far as looks go with the Njoe Toeb.

 

[vrao81]

A great integrated for that price is the creek 4330. Check out the reviews at audioreview. I've seen them for sale at audigon for ~$400.

 

[Doug W.]

I got a new 25 watt NAD receiver for about 400 back in 99 that I find does an excellent job in all areas. Can't recall the model number here (work) offhand. I'm sure they'd have a nice intergrated in this price range.

Their 25 watts are a lot more powerfull than you'd think, because they pack a lot of amps. (amp/volt/watt)