Best Solid State Amp For 10k Or Less

I'm pretty darned happy with my Pass Aleph P and mono 2s setup. Great soundstaging, dead quiet, natural midrange, forgiving yet detailed, and ultrareliable; fun-to-use remote, too! Should net out around $5-5.5k used. GREAT synergy between pre and monos. Possibly less bass slam than you might want for high SPL rock with inefficient speakers, but I'm continually thrilled with 88dB/w 3-ways playing lots of acoustic jazz. (Heard Charles Lloyd's latest: Water is Wide?) Good Luck.

I'm using KRC-HR and ML335 with B&W N802. I haven't been happier. I used to have a KSA-200S which I got rid of in favour of ML. I'm 80% jazz, 20% classic. Again, this is what works for me (in my room, my front end, cables, etc etc). Which might - or might not - work for you.

Without any doubt I would grab a pair of Pass Labs X600 monoblocks. They are terrific and you can find them used for under $10k. The Classe Omega is also very realistic.

I have the same setup as subaruguru. Dead dead quiet with no distortion, dimensionally accurate soundstage, and an incredibly detailed midrange. You hear singer's every breath, and things like people brushing their hair back or brushing against an instrument. The krell FPB, KAV, LEVINSON 23.5, and my old dna1/Gold all had a transistor 'background noise' by comparison. It's almost not worth mentioning. I didn't know it was there until I'd heard a pass amp. These amps are a little wimpy in the bass. Not even close to my house shaking DNA1. My vt100m2 actually walks all over them for bass. The pass preamp did take the system up a notch. More of the quietness and with a better soundstage. What cables are you using subaruguru? Did you find XLR's to help a lot? I have red dawns rca's. A guy I know who uses dynaudio 3.0's commented that the alephs were a great match for his system. He had tried a plinius and found it was not as good. Another great solid state setup is all spectral w/MIT cables. One of my friends has that. Could be warmed up a little, but ruthlessly revealing with great depth. Hey Jtinn, are you in Portland?