Best sounding compact integrated amp < $2k?

+1 for Exposure 

We might be able to help we sell and display many brands of integrateds our shop sells: Unision Research, Naim, Nuprime, Anthem, Micromega, NAD, NAD Masters, Parasound and a few others.

First you have the order wrong, you should select the speakers first, and then find the integrated amplifier that drives the speakers perfectly, you mentionded Dynaudio, but you haven’t decided on those yet.

Your choice of monitors is a varied one, we sell probably more monitors than any store in the NYC area, we have ATC, Elac, Kef, Dali, PSB, Quad, Paradigm, Legacy, Cabasse and a few others.

So here is how you should proceed: visit a store or stores in your area and look at a system that fits your criteria.

First if you are after a bookshelf will it fit on a bookshelf, or are you using stands?

Second: does the speaker have the right amount of bass to match your expectations but not too much to over load the room?

Three: efficiency does the speaker system selected work with x amplifier and sound musically satisfying?

You mentioned the Naim Uniti Atom and your fears of obsoleting the digital technology. We sell the Naim Uniti Atom and if you find a good match with the Atom the Atom is one of the most satifying of all current audio products on the market.

You view the built in digital as a limitation rather than a benefit, it is a huge benefit, we would say that any amp with a built in dac will offer you a tremedous benefit right now. That benefit is you don’t have to worry about the space, cost of a dac, cost of digital cables and intergration issues.

The Atom is winning awards where ever it is reviewed, because it delivers a warm, punchy sound, it drives most speakers well, the built in features of being able to stream any source from Ios, Android, APTX, Tidal, Spotify enable non audiophile friends, and family members to easily enjoy the sound system, and lastely the Atom is a stepping stone into the world of Naim.

The Naim sound is totally addicting it sounds like a tube in the midrange, with a warm top end and punchy bass, you can move up to the better Naim Units and get even better sound, you can purchase a Muso QB a $899 streaming box which works on the same eco system so you can have a house full of quality streaming products and bring in the entire family into the joys of good sound.

Lastely the built in dac is excellent, and it will take a good sized dac investment to beat the dac built in to the Naim.

Remember a company like Naim can spend millions of dollars to perfect product, designs and technology, in fact they spent over $2 million dollars on the new Uniti series, how many small high end companies can afford to invest that much into product development? The answer is none.

Look at the Uniti Atom as a perfect starter product to begin this project, you can always in a few years if you wish add an outboard dac to the Atom or use the Atom in a different room such as a study or office the applications for such a product are only limited by your imagination.

If you look at the competition to the Atom there really isn’t any. The Naim Atom sounds considerably better than the NAD products non Masters line for the money, and the upper end Masters M32 costs $4,500.00 nor does any of the other companies offer built in streaming, there are Sim audio and Cary all in ones, but neither of those companies have the warm punchy sound of the Naim nor do any of those companies offer a variety of products on the same eco system with the variety of accessable sources. You could look at a Hegel with a Blue sound streamer but you are back to a multiple box, solution.

The little Nuprime IDA 8 is a major winner it streams APTX and its built in dac is excellent. you can also get the amp with a NAD Blu Sound Node and be out for $1,500 plus a digital cable the Nuprime punchs way above its price point and sound fantastic very clear with a slightly warm quality. It has been compared to most of the $2k and above products and you have to spend considerably more money to really beat it.

We have both the Nuprime and the Naim Atom in the same room so if you are on the East Coast and are not to far from our office you can actually audition these items. Here are some pictures of our shop as you can see we love intregrated amplifiers, especially ones with dacs and streamers.

https://www.facebook.com/audiodoctor1/photos/a.122499441156611.22641.122499304489958/188426939164626...

https://www.facebook.com/audiodoctor1/photos/a.122499441156611.22641.122499304489958/188427020831285...

https://www.facebook.com/audiodoctor1/photos/a.122499441156611.22641.122499304489958/188427020831285...

As per loudspeakers, the Dynaudios are very good speakers we don’t sell the brand, because we have an abundence of monitors.

One of our new favorites monitors is the Quad Z2 they are absolutely amazing. Quad is not well know for their new dynamic speakers in the US but that is starting to change. The design brief was to emulate the sound of a Quad ESL in a dynamic loudspeaker.

http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/product-detail.php?pid=30

The new S and Z series use one of the best high frequency drivers currently on the market The Quads use all propretary drivers and their ribbon tweeter is one of the newer types of ribbon tweeters it is a hybrid a pure ribbon driver with the distinction of a very thin highly strong polycarbonite damping layer, this gives the tweeter a sweeter sound than most ribbons which tend to be too hot in the upper treble that do not use this technique. The Quad tweeter is a pure ribbon as the metal diaphram is directly driven by the magnetic field and does not have only a thin strip of metal bonded to a plastic subtrate which is a Heil driver or a pseudo ribbon.

We saw the speakers at the Capitol Audio fest and were impressed by the sound quality, styling and build quality, and reasonable pricing of the line.

Then with the Stereophile review by Ken Meilcalf, we were convinced to try the line.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/quad-s-2-loudspeaker

We were hoping to find a more conventional montior to challenge the Kef LS 50 monitors which sound splendid but the LS 50’s looks are not for everyone. Mission accomplished the S2 are the best $1,000.00 monitor we have ever heard so agrees Mr. Meilcalf.

In fact if you look up the reviews from Europe the Quads are getting incredible reviews on all of their models and are being hailed by the press as some of the best sound for their entire price ranges vs all of the competion.

http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/upload/files/Lux+Quad_HFN_Yearbook2016 (1).pdf

http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/news-detail.php?id=19

http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/upload/files/Quad_Z1_HFC.pdf

Sorry for Quad commercial, but the speakers are mind blowing good, and unfortunatly are not well known right now, we feel that the Quad line should be a must audition for anyone looking for affordable reference grade speakers, the top end and imaging are amazing.

Another highly capable monitor line is ATC the SCM 11 are fantastic totally different sound than the Quads, puncher midbass, less high frequnecy clarity but a superb natural midrange.

Then their is the Elac Adante which are big monitors, they have the best deep bass of any monitor, and may over load a small room, they are very dynamic and visceral, the top end is not a delicate or detailed as the Quads.

Hope this helps a bit.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

The Creek 50a is a sweet little integrated.  Great tone and a purity in its midrange that belies it’s price.

Belles Aria ( now own ).  Superb dynamics and scale.  Very balanced.  The review was spot on; tube like with more grunt.  Thanks to JohnnyR, the Belles has stopped me from chasing my tail.  I will be keeping this one.

Regards.....

+100
Johnny R. and Audioconnection!!!

Agree with the recommendations (2) for Creek Integrated amps.  They have shown up on Stereophile’s recommended lists for years.  I drive a pair of large Martin Logan SL3 electrostatics with my 5350SE rated at 90 RMS/channel.  It hits way above its rating.  Drives those big speakers with room to spare.  Large toroidal transformer.  Incredibly airy, super defined detailed soundstage, and their phono section (you have to order the phono card) is outstanding, best I’ve heard.  I believe it falls within your size needs.