Hi there,

I'm returning to the world of hifi and looking to get a quality stereo amp and book shelf/standmount speakers. Will be adding a turntable, phono stage, and streamer if the latter two aren't built in.

I listen to a lot of acoustic music (as well as a spread of classical, jazz, and alt pop/rock) so favour a warmer sound with a rich mid range, outstanding vocals, detailed but not overly analytical, and especially dislike overly bright/sharp sound as I find it just get tiring. One challenge is the speakers need to be close to the rear wall so rear-ported is probably a bad idea.

Any suggestions for a good system here? Budget is around £3k-£4k for the amp & speakers.

ATC SCM11s or 19s are lovely but so neutral I'd want a powerful valve amp to warm them up - any ideas?
Sonus Faber's Venere 2.0 are warmer and more efficient? Any suggestions on amps?

I'm trying to get as many demos in as possible but hard to find some of the more esoteric brands so just trying to narrow down the field so I know what to go listen to!

thanks,

Martin

Auditioned so far:
KEF LS50 and R300 (lovely but not magical, rear-ported probably won't work in my room)
B&W CM6S2 (amazing but metallic treble got tiring even during a demo)
ATC SCM11 (amazing detail and oomph but too neutral with Arcam & (entry level) Naim amps at least)