anyone heard this amp? Been offered one at what seems a reasonable price of 1K.
I concur with Markus. btw, Penance you need to get a grip as you're suffering from acute upgraditis nervosa Flailing your fishing rod around in the hope that it will catch something is no way to buy your next amp. You already took one dead end with the Rotel. Calm down, listen to a range of stuff, decide what you actually want and then hunt it down :MILD: Michael.
In addition to Michael's excellent advice: IIRC you're building your own turntable at the mo'. I think it would be very unwise to settle on an amp before you know how your front end will turn out. Front end first goes for system building as much as for the allocation of funds. The character of the source determines what you need to look for downstream from it.