[asliarun]

Thanks, Mark. I should get the Parasound in a couple of days - I will first try it directly with my Squeezebox. It was quite helpful to know that you have driven it directly like this as well. The Rega Brio-R is one attractive compact amp that seems to still deliver a fair bit of power. I also quite liked what they stand for - no nonsense power and value for money while keeping quality at a certain standard. But it is clearly out of my budget currently. Perhaps some time later. I will also try listening to Sugden amps.

Letitroll, thanks for sharing your thoughts on the NAD 1020. I might end up delaying it a bit if the direct connect works well enough for me.

[asliarun]

I finally setup my system today and was able to listen to some music. It sounds really nice! I think the Parasound 2125 is a good fit for my Totem Model 1s. It was also able to pick up the signal from the Squeezebox without any problem (it also has an input gain that can be increased or decreased for each channel which is quite nifty).

I'm going to sit back and listen to some music now

Thanks for all the advice and help! You guys are awesome.

[Letitroll98]

Hey, enjoy.  And let us know if the amp breaks in and changes the sound over the 1st couple of weeks.  I know it's used, but if equipment sits for a while it's just like new stuff as far as break in.

[howburger]

Maybe a little late, but this is a thread that I have read a fair amount on, and for the price of admission, there's not much downside to purchasing one of these if you can find it. The risk obviously being that it is hyped to the extent that the Playstation SPCH-1001 was as a high end CD player.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=68889.0

Harold

Edit: Oops, just noticed I was too late. Maybe useful for someone else in the same situation.

[Letitroll98]

Late is okay, as you said, the info can be used by someone else.  I was heavily involved in the revival section of that thread and the Pioneer VSX-D912 receiver wouldn't have been a good recommendation in this case for two reasons.  The Totems are 4 ohm speakers and the amp hates anything less than a rock bottom, lowest dip of 5 ohms concurrent with a nominal 8 ohm rating.  Secondly, it hates anything with low sensitivity, I think the Totem is somewhere around 86-87db. 

So you need to mate the VSX-D912 with a fairly non reactive speaker of a 8-16 ohm nominal rating and sensitivity above 90db.  If you can do that it's pure magic.  Sweet, dynamic, detailed, with excellent imaging and decent sounstaging.  I have it working well on the low edge of those numbers, 8ohm nonreactive with 89db sensitivity, and use it in the home theater with those speakers.  I really need to get something more perfectly suited for the Pioneer.

For the OP.  The Pioneer VSX-D912 receiver has a wonderful preamp section and is a big reason for it's excellent sound quality.  I used it for many months simply as a preamp, replaced only by my love of passive devises.  They're going for around $100 for nice examples on eBay.  Purchase only the exact model, Pioneer VSX-D912, as it's a one hit wonder.  They got some lucky synergy on that one, other models, even close cousins, haven't sounded as nice.