Integrated Amp for Girlfriend?

-As long as she can get by with only 15 watts/channel. You'll need easy to drive speakers but the amp is very nice sounding and the investment is minimal.

The unit will accept high output phono cartidges so a turntable is possible. The line section is passive- theres a total of 8 tubes in the unit.

By rebuilt: new power supply filter caps and new coupling caps in the output section. Find a decent set of 6BQ5s or else put in new ones. Set up right, the amp is very reliable. Set up poorly and you'll be pulling your hair out.

The fun part is it'll totally give the new integrated amps a run for the money- it has the best sounding output transformers Dyna made.

The Musical Fidelity A3 is great and can be found for about $700-$750 here on the gon. BTW it looks great too.

Outliar: What speakers will she be using? Based on this I might be able to make a few integrated tube amp suggestions. Also what is the price of the CS (it is quite attractive as is other BC gear).

Hi, thanks again for all the responses. I don't want to spend too much (rather upgrade my own system :-), so would rather spend in the $600 area. I'm still leaning toward the Blue Circle CS as I think she'll like that most and I'm already a happy Blue Circle owner. I think the CS retails for about $800, but I believe a 20% can be had direct from Blue Circle with shipping included if there's no dealer in one's area. Anyway, I'll think about it further. Speakers would be $300 infinity bookshelfs (can't remember the model # offhand). They should do the job. CD player, will, alas, be either a CD walkman or some cheap Sony DVD player (I know, almost sacrilege, but will get her started - I'm hoping the amp will be the first step toward long term upgrades for her).

Dekay, by the way, in reference to an older thread, I took your advice and got loads of IKEA Lack tables for my components - they work so well - I cut all but 3 inches off the legs. Thanks for this cost effective idea (so cheap, that the shipping cost more than the tables :-) Cheers,
John.

I've a correction on the CS price - Blue Circle told me the retail is $1195, and with discount would be $920 plus $25 for shipping, if there's no dealer in the area. So, looks a bit pricey. I've pulled out an old Harmon Kardon receiver (AV10) from my garage that I may give her to get her going ($200 on jewelery may work better as a gift than a $950 amp that she'll only half appreciate ;-)