Hi everybody,
Ok - I've got a pair of M40's that I use mostly for listening to vinyl, and I'm currently using a 1980's Harman Kardon 380i receiver. It's a really nice little receiver, but it only puts out about 30watts. Most of the time, it really works out great - it's a great little receiver. Sometimes, though, when I want to listen to music LOUD, I find myself turning it up past halfway - and my rule of thumb is that you shouldn't have to turn it up past halfway - at that point you are in danger of damaging the speaker from driving it with too few watts. Maybe this rule of thumb is flawed - if so, let me know... but with vinyl it can be hard to detect clipping, because it could be a record that just needs cleaning!
So, anway - I'm looking at a pre-amp / amp combo. I REALLY like the way the old 80's HK stuff looks, so I'm probably gonna try and find a used one of those (with the nice silver faces). As for an amp, though - I'm thinking about an old HK Citation 12, an Adcom GTA-535, or maybe even just using the amplifier portion of an HK 730.
I'm pulling stuff off the top of my head that has a good reputation and I know I can find pretty cheap. If anyone has any other cheap recommendations, I'd love to hear 'em! I know it might seem like sacrilege to hook up "cheap" stuff to my nice speakers, but I don't have too much cash, and I find that older stuff really does sound great, despite the price - especially when you are only interested in 2 channel stereo like me.
Thanks,
nowave