Something I should note, I’ve only heard forte iiis, not the new iv’s yet, so I have no idea how those sound, only basing off my experience with the iii
Gotcha gotcha then. Well given your needs, some of the things I would have mentioned would be out due to IO limitations. You could go separates (pre + power) or integrated
I think you are right about the primaluna being a safe bet, it’s reasonably fully featured, it’s signature is a warmer neutral that doesn’t lean too far in one direction and it’s impressive enough technical performance will satisfy, and it’s also even safe in it’s looks lol. It’s a reasonably good choice just to get something and try. It’s well balanced overall and honestly there isn’t much standout both exceedingly good or noticeably off, but I think one could do better for the money, but there’s also something to be said in having something just work and sound enjoyable as well
The Z10 is a sweet amp, although honestly for some of the klipsch I might worry it might lean a bit too clean and tight for my liking, personally I want something that’s a bit more relaxed and less bright (not saying the z10 is bright, but it can sound that way with a pair of cornwalls I had heard with some LTA gear). Things it would excel at: resolving power, background blackness, overall spatial recreation, dynamics overall, speed and separation, timbre. Things that could be dealbreakers: tonality being too clean, forwardness potentially being too much, overall lack in bass grip and control being slightly one note, slight lack of impact, dryer tonal density.
Honestly with the rogue stuff, I’m personally not that impressed with their higher end, it’s good but nothing to really write home about, I honestly might like the primaluna more for the money you’d spend on a rogue. THAT BEING SAID, you have the opportunity to potentially hear a rogue amp from that dealer, if you could get an in home demo that would be real sweet, as that would give you more information overall, and if you end up liking the rogue stuff you can just get that and roll with it.
Honestly if you wanted a real middle of the road signature but something that would emphasize a lot of the positives of the forte I might look toward quicksilver. I think something like their mid monos with their remote line stage would really give you a damn solid setup for under your budget. Things it would excel at: overall grip and control, very grand stage and presentation, great balance of smoothness, tonally well balanced and well weighted, solid impact, great speed and separation, very nice timbre. Things that could be dealbreakers: coherency is slightly off but imo not that big of a deal here, resolution is good but not stand out
I really want to suggest decware but I don’t think they would have anything that would fulfill your usability requirement (remote and inputs). You could grab a decware power and go pre hunting but I don’t know if I’d want to do that in your case since you don’t really know what you are after yet
Some of the ST-70 style amps would work pretty well, but again might be another rabbit hole that doesn’t make sense to follow (yet)
I also have personally like an octave v 40 se, that’s an overall really impressive amp that is also somewhat middle of the road in signature and doesn’t lean too far in one direction. It’s more obscure but I think it’s still a potentially worthwhile pick here. Somewhat similar traits to the quicksilver combo but a bit dryer and more techincal, but not enough to likely tilt the speakers too far. It can actually be upgraded later on with a nicer psu called the black box.
But honestly I’d lean toward that quicksilver combo, I think that would check all the boxes without blowing out budget (iirc)
