Taken the plunge and glad I did.
Ok folks - from the Buy and Sell section you'll see my Lavardin is up for sale.
I bought a Graaf 50/50 power amp off ebay on Monday, it arrived on Wednesday, pristine condition. Plugged it in....... pretty happy.
Lovely big romantic sound with incredible depth, sounds freer, less restrained than I've heard before. I have not been able to find much info on the amp, other than positive mentions in reviews and forums but I do not think it is OTL
I've tried 2 different configurations, driving it direct from the Shanling CDP using its volume control, and through Sugden Headmaster as pre-amp.... possibly slightly more bloom when going direct but as I may want to add another source (a dac - that's another story!) I'll be using the pre-amp.
The amp sits in the bottom of my enclosed rack with plenty of space above it -but it does get quite hot. Generally it will not be switched on until after my nipper has gone to bed and my listening sessions rarely last longer than 2 hours due to family pressures so I don't think its going to be a problem. I can leave the rack open as long as the kid is not around.
I have also got hold of a PS Audio HCA-2 power amp, hybrid class A solid state (I think its some kind of digital amp thingy)..... it is also very good. I am very surprised how liquid it sounds, but the Graaf just shades it for depth and spaciousness. The PS Audio definitely sounds better through the pre-amp rather than direct, when it was a bit cold and sterile sounding. Also seems to have a lot more gain than the Graaf, so wondering if playing the CDP at a lower volume into the PS Audio is not working too well.
Currently scores are 45-55 in favour of Graaf.... but may hold onto the PS Audio for future use and experimentation.