Your journey with lower-watt tube amps -- Can a kit be good enough?

Sorry to be a contrarian, but I did not find the VTA ST70 to be my cup of tea, this even with my own upgrades with resistors,caps internal wire, highest quality tubes. Keep in mind  this at the end of my journey with class a/b tubes. .

Part of the reason I gave up on a/b tubes was inability to get the kind of articulate bass I require. EL34 my fav tube for this class, EL34 mids I love, bass and lack of extension in highs are the downside. This with CJ, Cary, Dynaco, clone, modded Prima Luna. KT family not for me, doesn't have EL34 magic in mids.

So, this in comparison to 845, 2A3, 300B amps  I previously owned or have at present. 845 can drive loudspeakers 300B and lower power SET have no hope of driving, I know I've tried\. 845 successfully drove 90db with benign impedance curve, with 2A3 same speakers sounded like transistor radio. 300B superior to 845 with my extensively modified Klipschorns, while Klipschorns very efficient, 104db they do have an impedance dip to around 2.5ohms at 100hz, this with shallow slope crossover. 845 amps have more self generated noise vs the lower power SET, nearly 1000V plate voltages vs aprox. 400V with the lower power SET. Point is speakers/amp matching important for these SET.

If you have excessively resonant or one note bass with SET you have issues with speaker match and/or output transfomer/ power supply issues with amp. As others have mentioned output transformer quality is critical, power supply is important in that you need something that can supply current with possible lower impedances found in some speakers. I have absolutely no bass issues with my custom build 300B monoblocks or 845 amp with the Klipschorns. And this  with much experience and comparisons  with a/b SS, a/b tubes, class A SS with various speakers.

As to future with SET, at some point I'm thinking Audio Note interstage 300B monoblock kit, Aric Audio 300B or possible 2A3z, Whammerdyne 2A3. Emotive 300B, Triode Lab 2a3 or 300B amps. Again, looking for quality output transformers and power supply.

Never ran the Dynaco clone with the Klipschorns, was running Merlin VSM-MM at the time. Didn't have any particular issue with the amp, just blah, lack of transparency, resolution. This compared to two 845 SET amps I was running in that time frame.

I've long agreed with Harley after having been through virtually all classes of amplifiers, both tube and SS. Virtually certain most of those amps measured better than the SET's I've owned, yet none provided the immediacy, the resolution, transparency, and the micro dynamics of my SET's.

I posit at least part of this quandary is a function of low parts count in SET. SET doesn't have to negotiate multiples of caps, resistors, transistors, what have you, and if point to point wired no circuit board. I can hear sound quality differences with a changing out a single resistor, cap or hook up wire, this goes to show how transparent these amps are. I used to have to change out multiples of these items in other amps to exact a change in sound quality. This suggests a signal passing through a less circuitous route is less changed/affected/contaminated, in other words more pure to the source.