Eldragon: I have researched a lot of inexpensive tube amps recently and have also considered the little Antique Sound Lab's. I have read of others having reliablity problems with the amps. I do not know if they are assembly or design problems. I have not considered buying old Dynaco or Eico models that I have owned in the past due to the fact that most of them need to be rebuilt, which can be very expensive. The best that I have found (per user feedback) is the Audion Sterling series though the cheapest retails for $1200.00. It uses EL34's (one of my favorite tubes) in some kind of pseudo SET configuration. The power supply has been upgraded on recent models and it should sound even better than the old reviews. We have a poster at this site from Alaska that own's one and hopefully he will respond. I am also curious about the "Cyclops", which is featured as a debut auction at Audiogon, that uses EL84's also a good tube that I used in an Eico HF81 years ago. If you want to go with more power and push/pull a lot of people seem to like the Jolida 300 and 500 series which can be had for under $600.00 used. Too bad that Jolida doesn't make a power amp though. I will be able to audition the Sterling in the next couple of weeks if I can make time. I will not be visiting the other dealer that we discussed until mid December. I want to wait until he has the whole Renaud line (well broken in) as to not make multiple trips. Should have an opinion of both the Audion and the Mesa after the trip.
