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For the ultimate in system performance, a great preamp is essential; but
it may cost you $5000 or more. Mine is an Audio Research LS-26, and it is superb. It also has 6 balanced inputs which I utilize; I would have a hard time changing to a lesser unit.
In terms of sound quality, Audio Research and Musical Fidelity have some excellent integrated amps that I could live with pretty well.
The Musical Fidelity M6si is only $3000 and has superb sound and more power than most speakers need. It is exceptional for its price.
If you have the money to spend, superb sound quality is available; but you can get pretty good sound for a lot less. I have maybe $30K in my system, but I coulkd put one together that is decent for $5K or so.
I was actually looking at getting the M5si for my system. Would the M6si be worth the extra $1k to get over the M5si?
The M6si has a lot more power, and may have a better preamp section, but unless you have some very power-hungry speakers the M5 should be very good.