Hi there -- I've been doing hi-fi for a while and am looking at the nuprime product range and trying to figure out what products might work well for my situation.
Here's my current audio setup:
Speakers: Totem Arros (I also have Martin Logan Vistas but greatly prefer the Arros which have an open rather than "beamy" sound, will be selling the Vistas)
DAC: NAD M53, Logitech Transporter, Denafrips Ares II -- I am currently using the Logitech Transporter just because I think it's neat and I can set its volume to not provide too much gain to my amp (unlike the denafrips). And it has lowest jitter/most detail when compared to coax out to NAD M53.
AMP (need help here): A tiny little GraceDigiital 100W bluetooth amp -
https://www.amazon.com/Grace-Digital-GDI-BTAR513-Integrated-Amplifier/dp/B00PLCMZ8W -- in a sense, totally inappropriate for this system except it happily drives my Martin Logans and Arros with no problem and sounds good. Class D can punch well above its weight!
I listen at low to moderate volume levels. Room is pretty "live" -- I've found that these arros work really well -- they don't excite the room too much but fill it with good music either for critical listening or to fill our "open" layout house with nice music that can be heard in multiple rooms. So I'm looking to improve the system with an integrated or amp/preamp -- emphasizing reference-quality detail and musicality at reasonable volume levels, while complementing sonic qualities of the arros (soundstage, detail, musical/deep bass to compensate for these little guys). Maybe with some help from GIK acoustics, I can get higher volumes in the room at some point. But this isn't absolutely needed. Future speaker upgrade may be Totem Bison Towers if I demo them and find they appeal to me more than these Arros.
I am looking to get an integrated or a preamp/amp combo that will elevate my system. Budget is $3K or so, maybe I could stretch a bit higher. I am intrigued by the IA-9x because tube harmonics are great (have previously owned a Music Reference RM-9 Mk 2) but such a pain to own. Since my budget can go a bit higher, I am wondering if AMG or even stretching to EVO STA (amp only, use transporter volume control) could be best. The totems seem to do get better and better with better amps. But then -- would I be paying for too much power? Quality per watt is more important than number of watts, but maybe with nuprime you get both together?
So -- IA-9x -- or something different? Let me know what you think.