Dynaco ST-70 and Magneplanar 1.6QR

Old thread, wish I could go back 13 years to chat with the op.

I'd recommend replacing or trading the 70s for a pair of Dynaco Mark IIIs,  replace all the 12ax7s with nos eico's, and replace the output tubes with nos Svetlana 6550s made from St. Petersburg Russia, and replace the speakers with a klipsch towers.  Will blow your 1000.00 a bit, but not by much.

When I mentioned replacement of all the 12ax7s with good nos, I forgot to mention that I was referring to my pas2.  Nothing has brought my 60wpc Mark iiis to life like a nice Dynaco preamp.   Running some pretty efficient speakers and the addition of a nice source, the Oppo 103d, soon to be replaced by a 95 which I purchased yesterday and also which brought me to Audiogon,  is what enabled me to bring that volume control knob down below 5 or so for my upper end.  I use the oppo to dial it in from there.

I'm admittedly a newbie to this audio stuff, but these tube amps sound so sweat, they put you in a trance and have you enjoying music you've heard before... but just somehow missed the whole deal.

Not knocking my old solid state system, powered by my Kenwood L-09s with an 07 preamp and an oppo 83 source, for full range sound, but nothing messages the brain like those dynacos. In my limited experience that is.