Which integrated amp would you pick?

joey54- Did you consider trying the Obelisk? It appears you were at Johnny R's ....?   (-:  -Don

In my system, with my Harbeth's, the Hegel sounded dry and not very involving. The Ayre just didn't have the drive I was looking for. I really wanted to like the Ayre or the Hegel as they both have balanced inputs. I am also interested in the Ayre Codex which sounds much better via it's balanced outputs. 

The Aria mates really well with the Treo CT's that I heard at Audio Connection. The midrange was outstanding as was the bass. I had thought you would need something like the Aesthetix Atlas or a tube amplifier to get a midrange like that on the Vandy's. The best integrated I have heard on the Treo's is the Ayre AX-5 but at $13,000 it was out of my price range. The Belles punches way above it's price point. I can't recommend it highly enough. I would try to go hear it before you make up your mind. I love the amp but everyone hears things differently and only you can decide if it works for you in your system.

I have had a bad experience with Heed so I did not even consider the Obelisk.

@joey54 .....thanks much for your response.  Helps a lot!  I had the Soloist 1 for a while, so I'm pretty sold on Belles.  I'm planning on using the Aria with the Treos.

Take care........

Have a KAV300il, anthem 225i, parasound a21, and my Hegel H360 driving my ancient ultima salons. The krell was great til the amp section melted leaving me with a decent pre. The 225I had the juice and didn't sound bad just maybe sterile would be a word especially when compared to the a21 halo driven by the kav the parasound sounded just like the reviews, musical, fun with strong bass, smooth highs and a decent midrange, but there's more there and the H360 brings more out making concerts sound live and studio recordings will give you the room reverberation. System matching still makes the biggest difference, but the hegel and I auditioned the rost and the H190 also and they all made my system sing 

If you’re looking at SS, make sure power doubles exactly from 8 to 4 ohms. It’s pretty telling of the quality of the unit as a whole if it does (not many actually do). Beyond that, it’s taste.