Both the Krell and the Musical Fidelity would be great choices. They are getting great reviews and word of mouth. Sorry, but I have not heard the KAV400i but did listen at length to the KAV300. It was enjoyable and from posts of users the 400 seems to have taken everything good about the 300 and kicked it up a notch.
The Musical Fidelity gear is great IMHO. I demoed the Tri-Vista integrated and SACD player and it was fantastic. The A5 is said to have captured most of the performance of the Tri-Vista.
Another integrated you might want to check out is the NAD Master Series M3
And keeping with the simple theme the Krell, MF and NAD have great source components that would work well with each of them.
Tube gear sounds great but there is plenty of ss gear that sounds great also. I went from an all tube SET set up to ss and I don't feel I'm missing anything. Depending on the gear tube and ss just sound a little different fom each other and a lot of tube and ss gear sound the same. It least it does within my budget constraints, IMHO.
Good luck with your search.
Cheers
The Musical Fidelity gear is great IMHO. I demoed the Tri-Vista integrated and SACD player and it was fantastic. The A5 is said to have captured most of the performance of the Tri-Vista.
Another integrated you might want to check out is the NAD Master Series M3
And keeping with the simple theme the Krell, MF and NAD have great source components that would work well with each of them.
Tube gear sounds great but there is plenty of ss gear that sounds great also. I went from an all tube SET set up to ss and I don't feel I'm missing anything. Depending on the gear tube and ss just sound a little different fom each other and a lot of tube and ss gear sound the same. It least it does within my budget constraints, IMHO.
Good luck with your search.
Cheers