Over the past three/four years I have moved from combo of Yamaha CD and AVreceiver into Celestion Ditton 15s, up through excursion into Arcam & Meridian CD combos and AudioLab 8000a, to reach my present set-up of AS transport/DaxDecade into AudioLab 8000S switched to poweramp mode, delivering 60W per channel control of JMLab Electra 905s, using AS's own BlueSilver interconnects and Nordost bi-Flatline speaker cable. 'you have travelled far, young master', he kids himself, at least wrt age. The addition of the Black Gates to the Dax Decade, both dac and digital volume control, has rounded the sound - more organic as someone might say. A good £200+ of upgrade. The addition of the Ncode ('jitter free') option to the transport has provided a further improvement in definition in each note & chord, and was an excellent way to spend £50. I am now happy with that bit. Thanks to ideas on earlier 'power amp recommendation pl' thread, I've been doing some demo'ing and some pondering. 1. I know I've not yet got there with the 8000S but since it really is clean and lets the dax so the driving, 'twas £300 s/h and is versatile, its a hard act to beat. 2. Demo experience with Sugden A21, before I had upgraded the source, told me that there was more to be had. Use of more powerful amps does suggest that JMLabs benefit from some better control. 3. MF 308 was pacier, with more driven bass but with tendency to boom on spoken voice. 4. The active ATC 20s were awesome, and I was tempted to go that route, and maybe thats just a matter of time - and whether I can really put those in a shared living room - have a marble facia perhaps. 5. The Graaf 5050 valve power amp took control but the difference over the 8000S was not night and day imo. 6. The PS Audio HCA-2 is doing very nicely, and I now need to go listen some more before commenting. It seems to maintain the definition and the pace without adding anything of its own. Its also made me read more about the Digital Amps that Julian and Isaac suggested. And I now understand more about the different use of 'digital' to the d2a converter argument. I might even risk doing the first draft of that Noddy Guide!! And the result of using a digital amp is good so far, and it aint hot. 7. I had checked out two integrates earlier the Krell 330i and the Sim Audio I-3, and have been recommended the I-5 more than once. These have the switchable poweramp mode (as per AudioLab 8000S) but are more money because of the versatility of having pre-amp options for other sources. Anyone heard a HCA-2 up against an I-5? 8. Keep on trucking ...