Myself was looking on these same lines I ended up with the excellent
pathos Inpol-2 MK 2 dual mono class A integrated amp tubes for signal aswell as preamp at 86 lbs very conservative 45 wpc into 8 amps 75wpc into 4 ,and a work of art hand built all in Italy Nothing from the far East for under $11k with discounts
sounds like a nice SET amp on steroids ,in Europe Pathos is aBig seller ,
I sold the way back in 2005 while in the U.K ,upscale audio,Kevin did pretty good review that caught my eye , forgetting that was a verygood product 20 years ago ,is much better still impol technology is still their working patent,.I thought well worth the mention they have excellent big class AB amps very powerful and hybrid in the $11 k trance retail,