Best 80w+ Amps with a DAC for under £750? (CXA80 or A-S801?)

[skip-tracer]

I've got a pair of Leema Xero speakers currently powered by a Marantz pm6003 with a Denon DA-300USB DAC, my main audio source is a Raspberry Pi running Volumio with a Hifi Berry Digi HAT, playing flacs (almost all 44.1khz, some up to 96khz, one or two albums higher again) served from a NAS. While I'm not particularly unhappy with this setup, my living room amp (an old Rotel) has died so I'm thinking of using the Marantz and the Denon in there and upgrading my main system.

By all accounts the Leema speakers are best paired with a reasonably powerful amp, therefore my top contenders at present are the Cambridge CXA80 (£750) and the Yamaha A-S801 (£699).

I was initially set on the CXA80, but it's marginally more expensive and doesn't have a phono stage (I only listen to vinyl occasionally so wouldn't mind doing without until the next payday when I could pick up a phono box, but that's going to be getting towards a pretty high total spend)

The A-S801 on the other hand does have a phono stage and is 100w (vs 80w). The only real negative is that it only has 1 optical and 1 coaxial vs 2 opticals on the Cambridge (I can deal with that though). It's also possibly a worse looking piece of kit, but I can deal with that.

Can anyone offer any thoughts on the differences between the two amps? Or are there others that I'm overlooking? Or am I wrong in thinking that the Leema's would work best with more powerful amps (in which case I'd be tempted to save a few quid and go for the CXA60). If there's a great value amp without a DAC I would consider continuing to use the Denon...

Thanks!

PS - I probably should have mentioned what I'm listening to... A wide variety but probably 50% indie rock and classic rock (Wilco, Radiohead, Sleater Kinney, Neil Young, Modern Lovers, Joy Division, Sonic Youth), a fair amount of jazz (later Miles, Alice Coltrane, Herbie Hancock), some noisy techno (but less and less of it) quite a lot of modern/ 2000s/ 90s hip hop (Kendrick Lamar, Danny Brown, MF Doom, A Tribe Called Quest, Main Source). Not much metal, a tiny bit of classical music (The Planets every now and then, a bit of minimalism).

 

[tino]

I would be tempted to seek out a used Leema Elements amplifier with integrated DAC. You might just find one at your budget.

 

[insider9]

I'd suggest going for a good amp first and foremost and a separate dac. Unless you simply cannot find enough room.

It's likely you will be expecting to go second hand to achieve that as more and more manufacturers insist on built-in dacs.

 

[Andrewjvt]

I'd suggest going for a good amp first and foremost and a separate dac. Unless you simply cannot find enough room.

It's likely you will be expecting to go second hand to achieve that as more and more manufacturers insist on built-in dacs.

Ja
I'd also get a good power amp and use dac as a pre
Integrated amp dacs are not wise imo

 

[Al ears]

I'd suggest going for a good amp first and foremost and a separate dac. Unless you simply cannot find enough room.

It's likely you will be expecting to go second hand to achieve that as more and more manufacturers insist on built-in dacs.

Ja I'd also get a good power amp and use dac as a pre Integrated amp dacs are not wise imo

Not a bad idea if you can live with the limited number of inputs on a DAC