To Cat sl1 owners: which tube amp?

Although the Forrest will play with tube amps, they are really designed and excel with ss power amps. If you are set on keeping the Totem and playing them with a tube amp, look for a high power pp tube amp in the 200w range like Audio Research, Bat, VTL etc.

If your Forest's can be driven with 65 watt/ch, I would suggest an amp that I use and love....the ARC D70Mk2. Superb synergy with my CAT and it is one of the very best amps for jazz or classical that I have heard. The mids and highs are still IMHO SOTA!
Here's the icing on the cake...they can still be had for a song!( although a'philes are now beginning to snap them up). Easily in your budget.

Thank you for your answers.
Any opinion on Audio research VM 220 monos? I could have an audition on them next saturday...they are a bit expensive ( 6000 euros used!). I'm afraid about Cat sl1 big gain and I don't like too brightness in the highs...the problem that I exeperienced with a lot of amp I tried in these period (wasting a lot of money also)

Hi Enrico,
You've just mentioned and nailed that CAT SL1 has an excessive gain and is the culprit of your brightness no matter what amp you're going to use.
Preamps from AudioResearch also have excessive gain of nearly 20db.
Your correct solution is to quit shopping for amps and get lower gain preamp. I haven't been shopping for tube amps for the past 23 years, but if my memory serves all you need is minimalistic low-gain tube preamp such as AES-3(only 3...6db of gain).
Totem Forests are very well designed speakers and work well with tube and solid states amplification. In fact they're very tube friendly with it's stable 8 Ohm impedance.

I am unfamiliar with the Totem speaker, but you may consider auditioning the CAT JL-5. Purported to have Convergent's latest technology in a smaller and less expensive amp.