Tubes v. SS: can you mix and match?

Yes, Marco, that does help. And I had been looking at Quicksilver as a matter of fact. Also VTL. Both companies somewhat close to (my SoCal) home. I'm open to older/used equipment but since I know little if nothing about tube amps, I am wary of buying the stuff. The Jolida 1703 is a three channel amp.

Well I'm a big fan of Mike Sanders' Quicksilver gear. Damn fine gear on every level, and the man knows what he is doing. Hand built, point-to-point wiring and overbuilt in every respect. I've owned four different pairs of Quicksilver amps and currently still own two. Love his amps and the one's I've had would all be a step up from the Jolida I owned. Still, for the money the Jolida is hard to beat if you are on a budget. A step up might be Quicksilver Mini-mites paired off with a Quicksilver Line Stage. On the used market that combination can be had for around $1100-1300. With the right speakers you may be very happy with that combination. The music you mentioned that you listen to would be well suited to a push/pull design like the MM's. I don't know how efficient those speakers you mentioned are, but I'd look for something around 92db or more for the MM's. Don't know how big your room is, or how loud you like to listen so you may want to provide that info to get more specific recomendations from others. I don't know VTL so cannot comment. I do recall a friend who had them mentioned his were biased pretty hot so may go through tubes faster and he said that they required hand-picked tubes to run best (I think he said his EL34's were supposed to run at 300ma if I recall correctly). You may want to ask VTL owners about that aspect of it. He did also say that he loved the sound of his VTL's (I think he had the dual mono 100's(?) and was pushing Martin Logan's with them). I never got to hear his rig, so again, cannot comment beyond that.

Marco

The Energy A5+2s are 91db efficient. VTL is a Manley (and son) operation, if I recall.

Webnick, I was not trying to say "...that in general, tube amps tend to be of a higher sound quality than SS amps" - both can have their strengths and weaknesses, and I don't like to generalize sonics as far as 'tube sound' or 'SS sound' types of characterizations. I wasn't clear whether your question was about build quality or sound quality, but all I was trying to say is that tube gear is a specialty product, not made in the hundreds of thousands for general consumption, and will likely have acceptable build quality. My comments about quality being roughly comensurate with increasing price, at least in the sub-several-thousand-$ range, apply to both sound and build (beyond a certain point, you're into luxury cache goods, where all bets are off and image, status, and fetish play equal roles to sound and build quality).

But some brands off especially good value while eschewing fanciness, and VTL and Quicksilver are prominent among them as far as made-in-USA goods go. I can't comment on the current Quickie offerings, but I have heard the VTL ST-85 sounding extremely good with SS preamplification powering 6 1/2"-woofered small floorstanders, so I would certainly give it a listen with the Veritas 2.3's if you're so inclined. (BTW, David Manley hasn't had anything to do with VTL for a number of years, or for that matter the company he founded after he left VTL, Manley Labs. VTL is run by David's son Luke Manley plus Luke's wife Bea, and Manley Labs is run by David's ex-wife EveAnna Manley; David Manley had gone back to Britain or Europe the last I read, and I don't know if he has any industry involvement now. His design concepts do seem to continue to influence both companies to a fair degree, if not always in the same ways.)

I see, thanks. I'll research both VTL and Quicksilver and see if I can audition their stuff. Thanks, again. Whether to tube the pre or the amp or both remains a good question for me. The simple upgrades I've made so far have really improved the sound of the stuff I have now. I appreciate the comments of all of those who have responded.