EL34 in triode vs 300B/845 SET

Thanks for everyone's continuous suggestions.  I ended up doing two things in the past two days.  I got a EL34B PP with triode / ultralinear mode capability on sale from Amazon just so I can try things out on the cheap as experiment.  My dad who got started me on hifi with his B&W 802 Matrix back in 1985 came to visit me for July 4th, he also liked the Dared VP300B SET and we've decided to take a leap of faith with the Dared VP845 SET.  I look forward to shared my experiment results later if anyone's interested.  =)

@hfaddict, I didnt look into the Line Magntic 508, as a matter of fact been ogling at a used unit on eBay.  But I feel price is a bit too high.  Someday I may try a 805 tube if 845 turns out a good experience.   If you have the budget, PSVANE besides making tubes also makes a pair of 805 monoblocks that weigth 100lbs each.  Seems very tempting for a try...

@hifineubee Beautiful amp. Best of luck!

So what solution did you end up with? If none so far, then let me be your humble advisor. I’ve been an hi-fi audiophile for 50 years and I’ve had a lot of medium priced gear. Tubes as Well as ss. You have a nice set of speakers, but in order to get The Best out of Them, my advice would be to go for a
chunky second hand quality ss integrated Class A amp. Here you get The warm Sound Combined with The muscles your speakers deserve. As you Americans say ...nothing beats cubic!

I have 805 D3's.  I drive them with a clone Firstwatt M2x (from diyaudio.com) using the Ishikawa input stage (genuine Toshiba JFETs).  For a pre, I use the Korn Nutube B1 (also from diyaudio.com).  I use SoundID from Sonarworks for room correction, because my room is a very odd shape and forces me to have one speaker in a corner and the other not.  Most of my listening is near field.

I have loved SET using a homemade 300B (from tubelab.com) driving Foster full range kits from Madisound.  I loved SET so much, I will return to it when I have room for large horn speakers.

The sound from this current system has much of the depth and all of the imaging I loved from the SET.  It lacks a touch of warmth; the kind of warmth that's so magical, it makes one forget they're missing an octave or two on the top and bottom :)  However, this may be an avenue you wish to pursue with your speakers, as total cost will be under $3k and comes with the satisfaction of building it yourself.

As someone who started out with tube experience in guitar amplifiers I have always found EL-34s to be a good tube to drive to power tube distortion in a cranked Marshall amp. They lack bass compared to a 6L6GC.....anyway never have been interested in them for hifi stereo.

I have a chifi 300B/845 amp (Muzishare R100 845) that I tried out for a while. Definitely more bass punch than SET 300B amps. But the heat that thing thru off could heat the house and too much in the California climate. And I did not find it more resolving or any other benefit other than more power. (I will gladly sell it if anyone wants and amp around 100lbs!) It's basically dual mono blocks fit into a single chassis (4 transformers).

For 300B I ended up with the Icon Audio Stereo 300 MKII which employs a quartette of 300Bs in what I believe is parallel single ended mode adjustable fixed bias...not sure maybe it is some kind of push-pull...have not seen a circuit diagram. The manufacturer just says the 6SN7s run is cascode mode.

Well it has plenty of power and good grip on the bass. I use it with Klipsch Forte IVs and rarely turn it up past 10% unless I want my wife to start yelling at me.

I think there are a few other 300B quartettes out there...maybe Cayin. Check them out. I prefer to the larger space heater 845 or 805s (you need to add solar panels on your roof to run them unless you want to pay $1k for electricity every month).