Best sounding ,best value Vacuum tube integrated


I have been helping my brother with getting a excellent tube integrated amp for as little as possible but have to sound exceptional I did a lot of research and SET amplifiers sound about as close to live as you can get with certain limitations ,you need a pretty efficient Loudspeaker . Omega makes some very good ones the Alnico Hemp six at 94 db efficient is excellent with a sub Xover allways high it is easier on the speaker. The great tube used here is the 6C 33 Russian military power tube used by Lamm audio, Batt
Joule Electra .I heard the Almarro 18 watt integrated ,excellent and
Then a friend said( Jas Audio Bravo 2.3 )had recently come out with a improved version . Using 5AR4 rectified tubes and 6au6 driver tubes . All tubes very reasonable in price. Mullard rectifiers are the best and RCA black plate driver tubes Which is a 10 % increase in fidelity across the board .this integrated SET
Has a rich full body midrange and SET sometimes a bit soft on top and a bit soft in bass .not so tons of control excellent midbass and defined top end
The performers were very 3 dimentional in this setup.
Even with 88 db 8 ohm stand mounts rock solid imaging and engaging at 90 db levels .the sub was crossed over around 90 HZ which is the highest you can usually go and still be seamless .a high quality power cord is a must. If your loudspeakers
Are efficient ocer 91 db I would highly recommend checking this out .
Retail is $2,495 quest for sound has very good customer service.
128x128audioman58
Not sure they are made any more and I have not seen one on the used market in a LONG time but one of the best low cost tube integrateds I ever heard/owned was a Tokyo Sound Valve 300se (or it may have been se300).

Build quality was very good and it was a very attractive piece as well. 6L6GC based with power in the upper 20w range. Also featured a circuit similar to "loudness" function of old to compensate for lack of bass at low volume levels. All in all a very nice piece of gear!

Postive Feedback did a review which was very good.
If you are at all open to do it yourself work, I just finished building the Audio Note Kit 1 and it sounds sublime. I started a big thread about it here on this forum and I also created a blog documenting the build process. Might be worth looking into. As far as value, in the dollars and cents arena, Commonsense Audio (you can Google them) sells a 300B based, single ended amp for about $1500, delivered. I have absolutely no idea how good it is, but I am sort of dying for someone to buy it so they can report back here on how it sounds. :-)