This may be my new fave budget amp.

Bye bye Rotel...

Sprout 100?
www.psaudio.com/products/sprout100-integrated-amplifier/

Might be useful for a friend to know about, so thanks for the note. I'd not heard of them before.

And the smallest of the AR Holographic series?

I remember seeing (and hearing) the range in Smith Sound when they were in a mall in Queen St, Auckland.
I was very impressed, especially with the larger floor-standing ones. Do you use a subwoofer with those?

I have those speakers in my garage system. I read a review in the Absolute Sound where HP liked them.

Yes.
Acoustic Research M1

HP got them after (Mr) Mark Levinson used them to demo his Cello amps.
No need for a sub

Sprout belongs to a guy who has a Cello 350

Further listening showed just how good the little M1's still are.

With my small components - the Sprout, Technics SL-7, Sony Discman D250 and Walkman Pro WM-D6C, the sound was amazingly good.

They don't go deep but have a convincing lower midrange and clean airy highs,

The transparency, imaging and soundstaging puts to shame many newer/bigger/more expensive speakers.

Worthy of the best partnering gear, I recall hooking them up to some AVRs and they didn't sound so good.

Time to look up the original TAS review.

www.dropbox.com/s/cpws31k03ne3prs/ar%20m1%20tas75-76%20jan92.pdf?dl=0

The Sprout is a great little amp with plenty of drive, good tonal balance (avoid the bass boost function), good imaging/soundstaging.

Not so good is the volume control - a slow, endless encoder with no level indicator and knob that feels like it's about to come off.

It's supplied with a remote but the owner has lost it.

These sell for $699usd so a tad pricey for a tiny tot amp, over in Aus they are $1295aud,  no idea if they are sold in NZ.

Good vid, I forgot I have a spare perspex computer stand in a box somewhere...

Thanks for the link Michael. I know when I try out different amps in the garage it makes a big difference to the sound. (It's my test system.)
Must bring them in and try them on my main system again after all these years!

On the Image Petite Performa 2/Mass system the Sprout was less convincing.

Rolled off top, nice middle, flabby bass, spatially flat, a bit grey sounding.

Still decent but nicer in the small system.

Cheap Rotel still at #1.