I agree with some comments above that matching your amp and preamp is still the most important factor and the only sure way about this is of course to listen to it.
Athough I obviously not tried all the combinaisons suggested above, my personal experience is pointing towards YBA with their classic series. YBA1, YBA2, and if you are ok with only 50W YBA3.
The company's founder Yves Bernard André brought two distinct technologies that make solid state sound very tubelike:
-) double C transformer that is exclusive to YBA. This transformer besides producing very low noise is also slow, that might look like a disadvantage but that slow reaction is a major part of making these amps soud very much tubelike.
-) he also got his own amplification class, the "alpha class" with is prety much a lower heat A class.
In all the solid state amp I've tried YBA is the closes to tubes
Athough I obviously not tried all the combinaisons suggested above, my personal experience is pointing towards YBA with their classic series. YBA1, YBA2, and if you are ok with only 50W YBA3.
The company's founder Yves Bernard André brought two distinct technologies that make solid state sound very tubelike:
-) double C transformer that is exclusive to YBA. This transformer besides producing very low noise is also slow, that might look like a disadvantage but that slow reaction is a major part of making these amps soud very much tubelike.
-) he also got his own amplification class, the "alpha class" with is prety much a lower heat A class.
In all the solid state amp I've tried YBA is the closes to tubes