SF Assemblage ST-40 tube amp?

Thanks to both of you. I'm interested in buying something that's already depreciated, so I can sell it again if I don't like it (seems like I already said that, but oh well). Not interested in any preamps of any sort right now, don't need them. Neither one of you has heard or owned either the Rogue 88, or the ST-40, have you?

Thanks anyway, Osclib. I checked out the bottlehead.com, and their amps aren't powerful enough for me (although Sam Tellig thinks the 2A3 tube is the "tube of the 21st century", heh heh). They'd be interesting if I had really effecient speakers (one of my speaker projects will be, but I've got to build it first).........................No problem at all, John. John and Issabre, I may just have to try a Dynaco ST-70, then. I don't know, we'll see. The whole reason I was thinking the Sonic Frontiers Assemblage was because it was supposed to be very good in the bass (as ANY tube amps go, besides affordable ones...has a high claimed damping factor for a tube amp), and not do anything seriously wrong in the rest of the range. It even supposedly has a terrific midrange. It's possible that the Dynaco is a better amp, other than the bass, though. I have no idea...........I HAVE HEARD A TERRIBLE SOUNDING TUBE AMP BEFORE. It was a Luxman, not sure the model number. Very inaccurate and blurry sounding, with bass and lower mids having the most coloration I've ever heard from a hi-fi component. Perhaps the tubes were long past going bad, I don't know. That was with Dynaudio Contour 1.8 Mk 2 speakers..........I would have been discouraged about tube amps if I hadn't since heard a 125 watt VTL amp that sounded less tubelike and more analytical on Soundlab speakers, than did my Krell amplifier on my Paragons!.......I own various speakers, and am building several more. The primary commercially bought ones I have right now are: Alesis Monitor Ones, Paragon Acoustics Radiants, and Magneplanar MMG's. I have high hopes for my project speakers...but need to spend more time working on them, than talking about them, heh heh.

Harv, thanks for your input. Um, I'm afraid we're ALL on the lunatic fringe, being in this hobby in the first place (whether tube-heads, solid state-heads, digi-heads, styli-heads, whatever). So, I'm not dismissing you! I agree that a simpler circuit can usually be better (and point-to-point, rather than circuit boards). But, I'm really looking for something in at least the 30 to 40 wpc area, since I'm used to 500 wpc (use most of it only on the Maggies, though). I'm hoping to churn out a quick DIY speaker on the cheap that uses a bunch of low cost series-parallel cones, that should be easy to drive, and very efficient. If it turns out to be more efficient than I'm thinking, then I can consider the "few watts per channel" types................However, it will feature 2 Vifa dome tweeters in parallel, so the impedance will be dropping to like 2.5 ohms in the low treble (unless I can somehow compensate for it in the crossover). WILL THIS KILL A LOW POWERED TUBE AMP? The impedance below the treble will be nominally around 6 ohms, so that should be ideal for all but maybe extraordinarily weak and unstable amplifiers.

Interesting story, Harv.

HAS NO ONE ELSE HEARD THE ASSEMBLAGE ST-40????

OK, does anyone know someone, who knows someone, who has heard this amp?

David!!!! Thanks, but I just couldn't live with the weak bass. Apparently ST-40 owners are every bit as rabid about them as Dynaco ST-70 owners are (if not more so), but I'm thinking the ST-40 has more of what I want.