I agree with the others - tubes at the lower prices are not generally as good and frankly I would sooner start out with Solid State amplifiers.

Do the denon's have tuners(radios) built in? Many audiophiles like to suggest integrated amps(basically a receiver without the radio) because we feel it is clearer and more of the money went to better parts than spreading the cost too thin and thus cheaping out on the actual amplification parts.

I like all the new Rotel stuff - it's actually quite a lot better than it used to be and it was always pretty good for the money. All their power amps even the cheapest ones are fine with 4 ohms and surprisingly some are good to 2ohms and don't cost a whole pile.

The Rotel RA-02 is my favorite integrated for cheap - it may have been replaced though as it was some time ago. I don't know if it is 4 ohm capable. http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/p...roduct_ID/1218

Interestingly when I directly compared the Rotel RA-02 versus the NAD 320Bee the former sounded so considerably better it actually surprised me because generally cheap integrateds tend to sound a fair bit the same (enough that I would want a blind session). The 320Bee was quite popular but practically sounded broken next to the Rotel. Now if Rotel could make a great sounding CD player they could really lay the boots to the price class.

If you really want the tuner built in then Denon is probably a fine choice as would be Marantz Yamaha etc. If the tuner isn't needed don't pay for it and go with an integrated. The RA-02 was about $500 new and probably half that now. If you need 4 ohms and it doesn't do it then the RB-1050 power amp is an option.

Other brands to look at - Cambridge Audio, Arcam (probably more expensive). A second hand Sugden, Creek Audio, Rega, Cyrus, Sim Audio, Audio Refinement, might be found in budget as well.