I am in a similar process as the OP but unfortunately my budget process is to be literally as cheap as possible. My speakers will be Legacy Aeris which has the bass section powered by Class D amps.
I have gathered one integrated Class A SET amp Line Magnetic LM 508ia 2x48 Watts @ 16 to 4 Ohm.
I am at this point considering a Hypex NC500 based Class D from Nord / Apollon etc which is rated at 700 Watts @ 4 Ohm and 550 Watts @ 2 Ohm.
One Class A/B amp like Coda 5.5/12.5/Ts with high Class A bias up-to 40 watts and very economical or Audio-gd Master 2H mono blocks which are over done for the price and great measurements (and I have used Kingwa's products before so not worried about it).
And the final amp but in a class of its own with respect to measurements is Benchmark AHB2. If required 2 Benchmark amps each in bridged mode, but going to start with one. Since it seems to be able to be at lowest distortion from first 0.1 Watt till clipping.
So Class A vs Class A/B (high/low bias) vs Class D (Hypex NC500) vs Class Benchmark.
I would like to know how the OP would like to audition?.
I am thinking of input from other folks i.e crowd sourcing the listening impressions. I can get a Binaural l microphone and select various sound clips and present them in a way no one will know (including me) when using the interface to pick X vs Y, i.e which clip sounds good i.e which amp is better. I am hoping to get a large enough diverse sample, which I think will help answer many outstanding questions regarding amps.
At this point my bias is that at normal listening levels there should not be any differences heard. Just stating my bias but I am open to what ever the results say.
It seems to be most of the listening session will use between 0.1 Watts to 32 Watts. So most amplifiers, for my speakers and listening distance, expect LM 508ia rest of them have a lot of headroom. So I am expecting more distortion from LM 508ia when compared to others.
I have gathered one integrated Class A SET amp Line Magnetic LM 508ia 2x48 Watts @ 16 to 4 Ohm.
I am at this point considering a Hypex NC500 based Class D from Nord / Apollon etc which is rated at 700 Watts @ 4 Ohm and 550 Watts @ 2 Ohm.
One Class A/B amp like Coda 5.5/12.5/Ts with high Class A bias up-to 40 watts and very economical or Audio-gd Master 2H mono blocks which are over done for the price and great measurements (and I have used Kingwa's products before so not worried about it).
And the final amp but in a class of its own with respect to measurements is Benchmark AHB2. If required 2 Benchmark amps each in bridged mode, but going to start with one. Since it seems to be able to be at lowest distortion from first 0.1 Watt till clipping.
So Class A vs Class A/B (high/low bias) vs Class D (Hypex NC500) vs Class Benchmark.
I would like to know how the OP would like to audition?.
I am thinking of input from other folks i.e crowd sourcing the listening impressions. I can get a Binaural l microphone and select various sound clips and present them in a way no one will know (including me) when using the interface to pick X vs Y, i.e which clip sounds good i.e which amp is better. I am hoping to get a large enough diverse sample, which I think will help answer many outstanding questions regarding amps.
At this point my bias is that at normal listening levels there should not be any differences heard. Just stating my bias but I am open to what ever the results say.
It seems to be most of the listening session will use between 0.1 Watts to 32 Watts. So most amplifiers, for my speakers and listening distance, expect LM 508ia rest of them have a lot of headroom. So I am expecting more distortion from LM 508ia when compared to others.