I think second hand is a good option. If I were you, I would decide exactly what you need out of your amp input/output wise, power specs etc. Start looking through "Integrated stereo amplifiers" on eBay. If there's too many to look through, narrow the search down with a price range, or specific makes that you like.
Whenever you see something you like the look of, then go to Google type in the name and model... reviews and read everything you can including snippets of info from forums that you'll be offered to read. Sometimes you might get directed to Amazon where you can also read people's opinions of a product
Then mull it all over for a while and you'll start to settle on the one or two amps that appeal.
All my kit has been acquired secondhand and almost blind so to speak. I knew I liked Marantz, so I stuck with that brand for my Integrated Amplifier. I finished up with a two month old amp, exactly the model I'd decided on, in mint condition, with 10 months guarantee left on it for about half the retail price.
As far as my CD players, I knew what I wanted out of it, because I'd been dissatisfied with my first player's bland lifeless sound, as a source. After lots and lots of research/reading I've ended up with a very, very good sounding set up. I started off knowing absolutely nothing about brands, their reputations, their general sound signatures or reliability.
I believe I ended up making some extremely good choices without talking to anyone at all. Just my own dedicated research and time, if you can find the time.
One further piece of advice in my opinion, is, forget YouTube. Those people generally, take far too long to tell you very little when it comes to specific products.
Really sensible advice, I do pretty much the same thing. Though I beg to differ slightly on YouTube, this is a great platform for discovering products you've never heard of; the usual caveats apply, many reviewers have sponsorships, so you need to question more their sincerity.
I was thinking about purchasing the Rega Brio, so I picked up on the Youtube reviews, the consensus of opinion, it has a warm, lovely gluey sound but not particularly transparent, this was edged out slightly by the Roksan Kandy (one of the newer models). So I changed my allegiance to Roksan and, before purchasing I looked up the many forums and HiFi publications and this weighed favourably.
I still kept asking myself is there something better? I considered the NAIM integrated amp equivalent and based purely on nostalgia and iconic attraction the brand is renowned for, apart from its sonic qualities. So it was NAIM, yeah it was a little shallow I admit. I don't think if I'd made the purchase, I could have lived with the quirkiness, it required particular speaker cables, additional power supplies to maximum the sound. So yes it was back to the Roksan.
Yes it was settled, I'm going to go with the Kandy boy that was until I picked up on another YouTube review, the Roksan Kandy v Atoll IN100SE. I can't remember exactly, was it the YouTuber 'A British Audiophile', or was it Darko? Not sure, anyway, Atoll wasn't a name I was familiar with, but it certainly proved overall the better amp (dual toroid power supply helped), Kandy had the edge in detail, Atoll better sound stage and better musicality. The Atoll doesn't have negative feedback, amps without it tend to sound better than amps that have it, the small trade off is an increase in harmonic distortion but we're talking about what the human ear can't hear. The Atoll was only bettered by the more costly Exposure amp. Well OK, either one would suit me.
Done the due diligence, checked everything I need to know about the Atoll IN100SE and as luck would have it, I saw second hand one on eBay in almost pristine condition and I grabbed it for £800.
It was a bit of a risk but it proved to be a sound purchase (excuse the pun). I'm mighty impressed with it, it really is a fabulous amp.
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