NHT 2.9s - what amp is for me w/small/med budget?

Affording bigger Pass amps is not easy. But they sure do sound good. :-)

I have a set of the 2.5's also. Audio Refinement Complete, Little Creek & Music Hall, I'm not familiar with but will look into. I've hear of the Jolida's - but they might be stregthing the budget a little far. Thanks.

i used to own a pair of 2.9's years ago. they were on the bright side so i matched them with the macintosh ma-6500 integrated amp with the sa-3 sub amp. nice combination for a small medium room. i would only use the sa-3 amp if you have a small room so you can adjust the bass seperately. since the 2.9 need a lot of power to get them to sound their best, this doesn't work in a small room. in a small room, you can adjust the bass so you cn hear it even if you have a low volume on your preamp. if you don't want to biamp the speakers, look for the classe cap-151, macintosh ma-6900, or a used dk design mk II. any 1 of these will have the power to control the lower octaves. IMO, i would not use a 50 watt integrated with these speakers (unless you biamp with 150 watt monoblocks for the woofers), not enough power. the ma-6500 with 100 watts was not enough and i had a small room.
good luck

I owned NHT 2.9 speakers for several years and had good success driving them with a Classe 70 so I know you don't need enormous power. Try to find a Plinius integrated. I bet you can cover your needs for under $1200. No need to mess with bi-amping or even a separate preamp.