Integrated amp recommendation?

[Salt Peanuts]

I recently moved my speakers into the living room to be used with our TV so we can open up the room I had been using as the listening room.

With no HT in the future, I

[n_maher]

Haj,

If you don't have one already I'd highly recommend a Harmony remote for ease of use and WAF. My wife was pissed for about 10 minutes when I told her I bought a $100 remote, then I set it up and showed her that she could turn the whole business on and off with one button and that frown turned upside down.

And given that you're in "compromise" mode why not build a decent HT rig while you're at it? Face it, if you got booted from your listening room odds are you won't often be able to turn the living room into what that room was. You've just stumbled upon reason #1 to have a headphone rig even though speakers are moar better.

[Salt Peanuts]

We already have a Harmony, and my wife likes it very much (she hated that we had, at one point, 5 or 6 remotes sitting on a coffee table). The problem still lies in that I haven't seen a power amp that can be turned on/off via remote.

HT rig has been mentioned and she wasn't exactly enamored with the idea of adding more speakers into the living room and doubt my current budget would allow for a decent HT rig.

As for a headphone rig, that's what I use the JH13 for, though I still need to get off my sick and lazy butt to send them back for a refit.

[jp11801]

I really like the Ayre integrated amp, used it should be in the ballpark

[n_maher]

We already have a Harmony, and my wife likes it very much (she hated that we had, at one point, 5 or 6 remotes sitting on a coffee table). The problem still lies in that I haven't seen a power amp that can be turned on/off via remote.

If you went with something like the Outlaw separates they have a remote trigger function so that when they aren't receiving an input they shut off. I feel like a one note horn always bringing up outlaw but my experience with them has been good and historically they've been well reviewed.

HT rig has been mentioned and she wasn't exactly enamored with the idea of adding more speakers into the living room and doubt my current budget would allow for a decent HT rig.

As far as I see it you're at least part way there. Good fronts, need center and surrounds. Personally I don't understand the logic of throwing huge $$ at surround pieces so really that just leaves the center channel. Hard to imagine that costing more than a grand which would leave that much for the amp side of things. Perhaps your tastes are more refined than mine and you have higher expectations which would of course blow the budget.

I see this as a "something's gotta give" scenario.

[Salt Peanuts]

I had forgotten about the trigger function - that would certainly work here.

I highly doubt my taste is mroe refined than yours, Nate. I think it's the case of me not pricing things correctly, especially since I've been mostly looking at new prices.

[n_maher]

Look at Outlaw's "Virtual Receiver" combos Haj, pretty sweet if you don't mind or need to have your receiver switch your video (which I personally try to avoid). Their previous receivers and preamps banked on DVI becoming the standard for video and completely missed the boat on HDMI. My TV has enough high def inputs that this isn't a big deal and just means that I have to program the Harmony to switch video inputs on the receiver when I switch tasks.

[Dusty Chalk]

And you can always phantom the center.

The hard part is getting buy-in on the part of surrounds for two reasons.

#1 -- Why? Why do we need surround at all? What's wrong with stereo? I don't want sounds coming out from behind me. They distract me. I don't want things happening behind me.

#2 -- Can we please put these wires away? What do you mean, they always have to be there? They don't have to be there when we're just sitting here watching TV, do they?

[1UP]

Some Audiogon links you might want to look at:

AudiogoN ForSale: Creek Destiny Integrated

AudiogoN ForSale: Bel Canto Integrated s300 iu amp usb

AudiogoN ForSale: NAD M3

AudiogoN ForSale: Plinius 9100

[randerson3024]

Try taking a look at Rogue Audio. My uncle bought one from my dealer, and it sounds lovely with Amphion speakers and a cheap Cambridge source.