I've got a similar front end as you...Touch & Rega DAC. Just this afternoon, I received an LFD LE IV amplifier. It's a little over your price range but not by much. I've had it running for just a couple hours and already I can say that it's magic....absolutely no comparison to the Marantz I was using. It's woken up my system in a remarkable way and it's not even burned in, yet. If you can audition one somehow, run (really, really fast!), don't walk, to give it a try.
Having said that, you've got to be able to live with a minimalist approach to the "bells and whistles" in return for stunning sound. There's no remote, and no tone or balance controls----just a flat-out gorgeous musical output. They're hand-made in England one at a time by the designer/engineer. The front panel as an on/off toggle switch, a lovely feeling volume control, source switching knob, a very small blue LED, and knob to control tape input/monitoring if one were to so desire. That's it... If you're in the US, there is both an East Coast (Fidelis in N.H.) and West Coast (Gene Rubin Audio) distributor. Give one of them a call and have a chat....I also looked at Primare, NAD, and Luxman but the sheer musicality of the LFM has me quite dumbstruck at the moment. You can read some stuff about it in Sterophile and a few other places. Don't bother to look for specs on it, the company doesn't believe in that sort of marketing. The manual is one photocopied page....actually a bit refreshing. If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me. -- rgro Rick System information ------------------------ Main: PS Audio Quintet > Vortexbox > Touch (wired) via spdif coax > Rega DAC > Marantz PM8003 > VA Mozart Grands > REL Acoustics R305. Home Theatre: SBR (Wired) > Pioneer VSX 919 > Energy Take 5 Classic 5.1. SBS 7.5.4 r32298 running on a Vortexbox Appliance, V 1.9. Touch w/Hardware V.5. Touch: FW 7.5.4 r9408. Duet: FW 68. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ rgro's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=34348 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=88452 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
