How to pick your first SET tube amp?

If you have a small room and don't play your music loud I would recommend a 2a3 base amp. They put out about 3.5 watts and is probably one of the best sounding tubes available. 300b based amps tend to be very popular since they can run on any speaker that are fairly effecient (91db or above) and have almost the same sound quality of as the 2a3's. 300b tubes however can cost alot if you get into tube rolling with a NOS WE 300b going for almost $1000/matched pair.

The el-34 are usually used in push pull designs which do not sound as good as the SETs. They have more power and handle more difficult loads. However, don't get me wrong, this is relative statement since they can sound better than most SS amps costing many times more.

If you don't mind a little soldering, I would go with one of the bottlehead parafeed amps. They probably sound better than any other tube amp under 5k.

Get a pair of Decware SE-84C-S AMP run them as Mono and you will love them.Another choice if you like tubes is a Rogue 88 with those speakers.
That was my first tube Experience and I loved those Triumphs with the 88's.

If you listen in a small room and at low levels you should be able to get by with a 300b amp (8 to 10 watts/channel). Antique sound labs has a number of SET's at reasonable priced that are triode based or pentode based in the 8 to 10 watts/channel range. My preference for SET's runs towards higher power. An 845 based amp will deliver about 20 watts/channel and should light up your Coincident speakers. You will have to find a used 845 based amp to be in your price range. If you decide to go higher power, let me know, I have an Antique Sound Labs 845 based amp that I am willing to part with for a little more than you target price. By the way, EL34's can be run in single ended configuration.