I don't like tube amps with the PSB Stratus Gold i's. AT ALL. And I am one of the bigger proponents of tubes on this site. They are generally not up for driving your speakers(which I used to sell), especially at your price point. The problem is one of both impedence and sensitivity being low. Most tube amps(especially inexpensive ones) simply cannot muster the current required by the Golds. PSB listed their sensitivity as being 90 dB/2.83 V in some of the literature we had. I used to argue with my boss about this ALL the time(he thought I was calling them liars). As the only thing we had that I found would bring them to life were the Carver LightStar(same as Sunfire) amps. Even the big Adcoms never woke them from their slumber; the sound being slow, ponderous, and rife with mosfet haze. The I read John Atkinson found them to be 84 dB/2.83 V, with a hellacious impedance/phase angle plot. I just KNEW it... But, with the right amp, the speakers can be ABSOLUTELY stellar. Just need to know how to coax them. If you really have a need for getting some glassware in your system, try a tube preamp. Good Luck!
