should probably go in amps section, but there is less activity there, and much greater chance of "dude, how do I hook up my 3000 watt amp to my truck" (that I keep in the living room for home audio..), so my apologies. first a generality that the sages will no doubt pick apart, but it seems that as prices go up, speaker efficiencies go down (many exceptions of course, but the exception confirms the rule as they say). I'm guessing that the relative brightness is going down at the same time. anyway, my search for new speakers is leading me to question the rest of my system(s), none of which is really up to "critical listening" standards--2 20 year old japanese amps (an integrated sanyo and yamaha receiver) rated at 20 wpc and a sony ht receiver rated at 100 wpc. So here is the real question: given a budget of say $500, I could buy any of the following: new integrated amp, ss no doubt used pre + amp, maybe a bit more a "pro sound" amp rated at lower end of that range (i.e. 200 or so wpc, not 1000) a vintage amp, tube or ss the difficulty of course is that any one of these categories has probably got some stand-out models that would beat the average models in any given group. any comments? I have a local shop that I haven't visited yet who has some vintage stuff, marantz, maybe some mac (though I think only the ss would be in my price range), some phase linear, and some stuff I've never heard of, like rowland, olson, amber, but he claims are good (it's an old shop, and none of this stuff is set up in a listening room). if these are well serviced, do they give a run for the money of say a newer nad and company? sorry for a long post, but thought it might be good discussion. I did read the tube talk and other thread on vintage stuff jan will probably reference, but maybe it won't be completely out of place here in speakers. I realize that I've left all other critical info out, like what am I looking for or missing, but let's just start with the basic question. .... and would that contact enhancer stuff make my sony sound better than Jan's dual mac's (smiles all around!)?