I have used the following with my (soon to be sold) Druids. (have upped to Definitions). These are in descending order of preference for sound quality (best favored first).
Ergonomics, price and power delivery are NOT part of this ranking, which of course do make a difference, just not in the below list. These are just the tube amps; I have also tried several ss amps. As you can see, the list is heavily biased (no pun intended) towards integrateds.
Manley Stingray, triode mode
ASL MG SI 15 DT, triode mode*
Manley Stingray, ultralinear mode
Golden Tube Audio SI50 MkII *
Dared MP2A3C
Yarland FV34 AIII (disclosure: I have this for sale here at the moment)
Dared VP300B *
Little Dot II
Onix SP3 MkI
Primaluna Prologue II (go figure)
The asterisked ones are known or suspected to have QC issues, so I probably would not actually recommend them. The Manley is by far the priciest, and figuring that, some might drop it in rank. The GTA is the only remoted one. IMO remote is nice, but any more to get SQ and remote along with reliability seems to vault you into pretty high price ranges.
The rankings are only my opinion, and only with these speakers. No doubt others' opinions could differ.
Have not tried the Cayin but a trusted friend did and he sold it within weeks, but YMMV. Have heard very good things about the Almarro and probably will try it, even tho the Defs probably deserve even more. Considered the Dared 845 but due to heat issues I don't even want to try it. Narrow-minded I suppose, but that's me.
Good luck. Feel free to email if you have specific questions.
Ergonomics, price and power delivery are NOT part of this ranking, which of course do make a difference, just not in the below list. These are just the tube amps; I have also tried several ss amps. As you can see, the list is heavily biased (no pun intended) towards integrateds.
Manley Stingray, triode mode
ASL MG SI 15 DT, triode mode*
Manley Stingray, ultralinear mode
Golden Tube Audio SI50 MkII *
Dared MP2A3C
Yarland FV34 AIII (disclosure: I have this for sale here at the moment)
Dared VP300B *
Little Dot II
Onix SP3 MkI
Primaluna Prologue II (go figure)
The asterisked ones are known or suspected to have QC issues, so I probably would not actually recommend them. The Manley is by far the priciest, and figuring that, some might drop it in rank. The GTA is the only remoted one. IMO remote is nice, but any more to get SQ and remote along with reliability seems to vault you into pretty high price ranges.
The rankings are only my opinion, and only with these speakers. No doubt others' opinions could differ.
Have not tried the Cayin but a trusted friend did and he sold it within weeks, but YMMV. Have heard very good things about the Almarro and probably will try it, even tho the Defs probably deserve even more. Considered the Dared 845 but due to heat issues I don't even want to try it. Narrow-minded I suppose, but that's me.
Good luck. Feel free to email if you have specific questions.