2. amps-preamps
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Integrated Amplifier

Hello, I'm in need of an integrated amplifier to go with my KEF R700s. It feels like the speakers require a bit more power to drive them. It needs to have HT Bypass so that I can use it with my Anthem MRX720. I'd like to stay within 4K but am willing to go up to 7.5K. Its very hard for me to audition anything where I'm located but I had my eyes set on the following:

Musical Fidelity M6si, M6500I
Parasound Hint 6
Belles Virtuoso
Hegel H360
Plinius Hautonga
Moon 600i
Used Mark Levinson 585, Mcintosh, or Vitus

Any opinions?
128x128pjpicket
maritime51's avatar
maritime51
1,288 posts
 
I use a Kinki EX M1 with my R900 speakers. Lovely. 
pjpicket's avatar
pjpicket OP
3 posts
 
@maritime51 I just looked up the kinki because I hadn't heard of it.  Looks to be a very good amp!  I just wish it had an HT Bypass option. 
reubent
3,587 posts
 
@pjpicket - You don't have to have an HT bypass, it's just a minor convenience. You can use any unused analog input, select that input and set the volume of the integrated amp to a pre-defined setting, something like top dead center, etc. Of course, you have to run the setup app on your HT receiver, with the integrated amp in the chain, in order to account for the difference in gain between your integrated and your HT receiver. You also have to run setup if your new integrated amp does have HT bypass.

BTW, I've run a combo 2-channel/HT system on several different system iterations and it worked just fine, with HT bypass, and without.

Given a choice, I would choose the extra (though minor) convenience of having an HT bypass/processor loop. But it's only a minor difference in the convenience. 
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