Tube Amp Recommendation

I second the TAD-60 recommendation. Great unit at a great price. Even better with the TAD-150 Signature preamp. Buy both new for well under your budget.

The comments by Dfhaleycko make a lot of sense. Rather than focus on the power, focus on getting an amp whose sound mates well with your system. A pair of Atmasphere MA60s or the BAT VK60 would be worthy of serious consideration. If at a later time you wanted more dynamic headroom, getting another BAT and converting these to mono amps would make this affordable.

If you are seeking a big 3-dimensional, more lush midrange bloom, great decays, textures, the ARC VT130 literally destroys the VT100 in these areas. I owned this amp several years ago and regret selling this. If you could stretch your budget to $4k, the VT150 mono amps (suped up mono amp version of the VT130) for sale on A'gon is an absolute awesome value. The VT100 was fine but it simply lacked the musical involvement that I enjoyed so much with the VT130. Just stay away from the ARC Classic series amps. They are tonally forward and fatiguing that could give you a very bad first impression of tube amps.

If I were you, I would start another thread to find other audiophiles in your area. Maybe you could hear some tube amps that they might have in their system and then work to borrow some amps to hear in your system. I suspect that many of the older amps listed in this thread will be hard to locate at dealers but you just might be lucky with some local A'gon members.

John

Thanks for the many informed responses.

Doug, I purchased the Catamounts with the Scanspeak Revelator tweeters and mid-woofers, which I hope will result in a refined and revealing two-way that supposedly reaches into the mid-40hz range without a problem. Have you ever heard these and, if so, your thoughts?

Chris.