amateur needs amp advice for a 2.0 setup - please

Odyssey Stratos... or Stratos Plus, preowned. Around $750 or so. Not a tube amp but pretty nice.

There are a couple of Onix integrated tube amps for sale here on Audiogon that would fit the bill. You can search through the forums here for listener impressions, but as I recall, the Onix amps have mostly favorable reviews.

thanks for the suggestions.. the stratos is over my budget but the onix sp3 looks good

anyone have other recommendations?

I would stick to an integrated, no need for separates. I like the Onix as well

hi bob, im not sure about this.. how can i find out if it will work well with the onix sp3?

Energy lists the impedance as 8 ohms nominal, but notes that it may dip down to 4 ohms. Without more information from the manufacturer (like an impedance curve) it would be difficult to say whether it is tube friendly. There are professional reviews on the Energy website, though unfortunately none includes lab results.

What to do? Well there is anecdotal evidence: you can peruse the forums here to see if anyone else is using tube gear with the speakers (you'd want to pay attention to what kind of tube gear - sort of an "apples-to-apples" comparison to the amps you're interested in). Also, the SoundStage! review includes some information that might be helpful, for example:

The matching of a pair of loudspeakers to an amplifier is critical for achieving the desired sound. My Graaf Venticinque is a 25Wpc push-pull tube design running in pure class A. It is not an especially tubey-sounding amp in the sense of having a great deal of bloom in the low end, but it is still, electrically speaking, a tube amp. Although rated into 4 ohms, it will not drive all loads evenly. My Amphion speakers are exceptionally tube friendly, with an impedance that never drops below 7 ohms. In general, I felt that the RC-10s were very compatible with this amplifier, but I do suspect that a solid-state design, even of moderate power output, would have taken tighter control of the woofer and produced a more articulate bass.

Hope that helps.

based on the foregoing, which suggests your speakers are best served with more power, you might consider a hybrid amp like the vincent, which will give you the qualities of a tube preamp and the added oomph of an ss power amp in one box. i've auditioned the vincent and was very impressed.

Consider running / maint. costs of tube.
An integrated w/tube pre / SS output may work and have lower operating expense. You might also be better served with decent entry level SS amp, of good reliability and resale while saving for a pricier tube amp/pre for a more permanent solution.