What's the greatest bargain in SET these days?

Charles and Rebbi, when I first purchased the deCapos, the Cary SS amps were all I had around here to drive them with. Based on their performance with the Cary's I had a hard time figuring out why so many people were so enraptured with them. They were good, but clearly a notch below my Magnepan 3.7Rs. When I picked up the Triumph extreme monitors, they, to my ears, really separated themselves as superior to both the Maggies and the deCapos.

It seems the deCapos are a different animal driven by tube amps. I am very pleased with how well they pair with the dynamo. I suspect that paired with a good source, this will be exactly what I wanted in my bedroom system.

What I can't answer is how does this relate to the Mahis? I've heard the neoclassic 250s, but not the Mahis. I suspect the Franks would be a good step up from the Mahis, but this exercise taught me not to presuppose results. I can't even begin to speculate on the Mahi's vs the Dynamo.

We listen with our ears and our brains, not with our brains alone. What is also unpredictable is how a given individual will respond to a given presentation.

Brownsfan,
How amazingly generous of you to take all this time and trouble! I really appreciate it. And thanks for the notes about the Concident amps. I wasn't aware that Concident even marketed amps, I'd only heard of their speakers.
I have been in touch with both Tash Goka of Ref 3A and Steve Deckert of Decware.
Tash says that the Antique Sound Labs ASL AQ 1005 DT (8 wpc) was designed with the De Capo in mind and will drive it quite nicely. It's a 300b based SET. It retails for $3000.
Steve Deckert recommended his 6 WPC, EL34-based SET, the Decware SE34I.4, which he said would sound twice as good (!) as the Manley (for a variety of reasons which he enumerated) and fall to the Manley only in terms of overall power. In other words, if I wanted to "crank it" then the Decware wouldn't play as loud as the Mahi's. But, he added, "in the end it will sound so good you won't care." The stock SE34I.4 goes for only $1300 with one input and one volume knob. Other inputs can be ordered at extra cost in order to negate the need for a preamp altogether.
Brownsfan (and everyone), what'cha think? ;-)

Rebbi, no problem, my friend. It was a lot of fun and provided a nice diversion from some mind numbingly boring chores. It also gave me a chance to firm up my plans for my bedroom system. I'm sticking with the deCapos, and I will be driving them with the Dynamo.

As for what I think, I will offer two thoughts.
1. I think you will be very happy with what you hear if you pair your deCapos with a good SET!
2. I think Coincident makes very good SETs, and both the dynamo and franks are excellent pieces at their respective price points.

I haven't heard the ASL or Decware amps, so I can't comment on them.

Rebbi,
It seems you have a number of very good options and the blessings of your speaker's builder(recommending the ASL 300b SET) as regards to SET/SEP amplifiers. The key take home point is "quality" of the particular amplifier as Brownsfan confIrmed with his listening results. You will obtain exceptional sound quality driving your deCapo with the appropriate SET or SEP(Dynamo or the Decware).The marvelous Frankenstein(6K) may be overkill for your stated goal(bargain price).I have a bias/preference for DHT tubes over pentode tubes but that's just me. The SEPs are generally less expensive than a good SET(DHT).Either way, you will do fine.
Charles,

I've got a pair of Ref 3A MM de Capo i speakers that I've run with a number of different amplifiers. They are very sensitive to amplifier quality and as Brownsfan has noted, they seem to "click" with certain amplifiers. Low power SET amps do well and it might be that they're tuned for amplifiers with the relatively low damping factor of SET amps with minimal feedback. The best sound that I've gotten out of mine is using a restored Threshold FET 10e preamp and a homebrew 2A3 SET amplifier based a design out of the old Sound Practices magazine. I've also listened to them with a Shindo Apetite - a push-pull 6V6 integrated amp and that combo also sounds very good. But the 2A3 SET has a certain charm that I miss when listening to the Shindo. If starting from scratch, I'd suggest getting a 2A3 SET amp or perhaps the Coincident amp that Brownsfan recommended. I see some decent used 2A3 amps on the Gon right now. No connection to any of those sellers.