I have the Dayens Ampino driving my Hornshoppe Model 1's and the sound is fantastic. This little amp as more than enough power for efficient speakers and is as good as what is written about it.
+1 on the Ampino. I am driving Omega Aperiodic 8's (now discontinued) and the sound is lovely. I'm still trying to get my head around how good this sounds for the money. It gets a ton "right" and very, very little "wrong". Personally, I think it is an ideal match for the Omegas. FWIW, I tend to find fault with many SS amps (I believe I am a tube guy at heart), but not this one. It may in fact be better than the hype surrounding it, if possible. Maybe a tad light in the bass, but that may be implementation-specific. Other than that, I cannot complain....at all. Makes me wonder if the higher models of Dayens integrateds are better than this, or if this is truly the sweet spot of the line (has been debated by other folks, but I don't recall that there was any clear consensus on this point).
Unless you
WANT to spend more money on an amp, you don't have to. Spending more money may get a more "accurate" amp (maybe), but most will be less "musical". Anyway, that's my take on why most SS ultimately leave me cold -- I can "hear them working" and I find that distracting. Only drawbacks of the Ampino I can see are convenience factors: only two inputs and no remote. However, I am so smitten with this that I don't care. Your mileage may differ.
-dB