[Jungle Jack]

Hello,
Michael, welcome. Looks like some very nice speakers. It really is a shame about CC. Once they got rid of a Commissioned Sales force, the experience and knowledge walked out the door as well. That and DIVX.
Cheers,
JJ

 

[Jungle Jack]

Hello,
Considering you own 2 pairs, I would be more inclined to get a 5 channel amplifier and use your as a H/K preamp. I am not sure which H/K you are running, but most have preamp outputs. If your H/K is pre HDMI, I would get a relatively inexpensive AVR with preamp outputs.

Emotiva's XPA-5 is simply an awesome value at under 800 Dollars for a true 200 WPC amplifier brand new. If you feel you need more current, a used Parasound HCA-2205 uses an almost 2 times larger toroidal power transformer and almost 3 times the capacitance. The Parasound is usually found for between 950-1200 Dollars. The 2205 is extremely close to Parasound's current Halo A51 which retails for 4500 Dollars. The differences are 2 kVA transformer in the 2205 and 2.2 kVA in the A51 and 150,000uf capacitance in the 2205 and 164,000uf in the A51. Both were designed by John Curl who is a legend and actually designed much of the Grateful Dead's gear.
Cheers,
JJ