What's the greatest bargain in SET these days?

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.

Charles and I have had similar experiences. SET amps are not created equal. IMHO there is more variation among them than among SS amps, for example. It is as if the simple circuit and low power of the SET design makes it more susceptable to the components chosen - starting with the power supply, the output transformers, and the rectification and including the tubes themselves. Along these same lines, it is as important to match the SET with the speaker. It is not just the power, but the execution of the design.

Gsm18439(Gary),
Yep, Just looking at the number of watts can be misleading. There's certainly more to take into consideration. Amplifier- speaker matching can be very specific.
Charles,