My Budget is around 40-45 K and I listen to Rock, soft rock, Jazz and also Indian classical music, carnatic to be specific.....
That's a broad spectrum of music (rock to Indian classical) there and it would need a very capable amp+speaker combo to satisfy you.
Recently I have heard a lot of amps (of all price range up to above a lakh), and with my very limited knowledge, the following is the impression on budget amps (around 20-25K).
In that price range, the brands are Nad, CA and Marantz. My comments below are meant for amps of these brands strictly in that price range. If you go higher up in price, then obviously things improve, but then there are other options available from other brands too.
The Nads are musical and have some bass, however, the sound may not be as clean as the other two, the highs will also be rounded off a bit. It will give the best soundstage in this price.
The CA would give you a cleaner and faster sound, there would be more detail, however, the sound may just be a bit clinical to some people's tastes, and hence lacking just a bit in musicality.
Marantz amps in this price range gives the best value for money IMO. However, I have no idea how they would perform with rock. They have reasonable details, very musical and and overall more balanced performance than the other two.
The models are:
Nad: 315, 325 and 326
CA: 340, 540, 640
Marantz: 6002, 6003, 7001, 7003
In the above, the newer models like Nad 326 and Marantz 6003, 7003 I have not heard. My favorite would be the 7001. IMO, it is very good VFM for my kind of music. But you may not find one now.
Please these are strictly my opinion. Others and most importantly, you may disagree after you hear all of them.
I have not heard that many speakers in the price range 20-25 K, so would not comment in detail. But among the speakers not mentioned in this thread, I would look at a PSB (not the alpha B1, the one above that) and also the lowest range Ushers (S530 is the model name I suppose).
Regards.
