Tube virgin looking for tube amp under $3k


I’ve never owned any tube amps or preamps and since I’ve got 95dB efficient speakers I thought why the heck not? And wow! What a rabbit hole I’ve gone down In the last week or so and my head is really spinning. For just about every amp or amp/preamp combo there’s someone who loves it and someone who says don’t bother. And then the more I dig, the more brands I find.

I’ve read about these products recently:

— Erhard Audio integrated amp 
—The various iterations of the ST-70 (Van Alstein, Bob Latino, Will Vincent, etc.)
—Music Reference RM10
—Cary (out of budget except used)
—Raven (at max budget for integrated)
—Dennis Had (hard to buy/find)
—Quicksilver Mid mono (need preamp)
—Decware (too long a wait for me at the moment but maybe one day)
—Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III (at max budget and do I really need 100WPC with my speakers in a small room?)

And probably a few others I’ve forgotten about already. 

I have to say that the Bob Latino ST-70 speaks to me for the price of entry (about $1400) and the fact that I could get away without a preamp and only use a passive input selector. That said, would an ST-70 be the best choice or only the cheapest? 

Any ideas for a tube newb who doesn’t have a stockpile of tubes to roll in and out of an amp?




larshepping
You can find the Ayon Spirit III for about 3k used.  I love the hell out of mine.  It's even better suited to your speakers than mine.
With the room size and speakers I would go for DH/SET.

I use old Bottlehead 2A3 DH/SET mono block amps with wide range single driver speakers and previously used an Audion 300B DH/SET.

The output tubes I use (Visseaux, Ken-Rad dual flat plates and RCA's) now cost more than I paid for my amps and preamp.

I'm not familiar with the new Bottlehead offerings, or anything else recent for that matter.

Of the amps you list the RM10 stands out for it's unusual but really great sound.

Think it's been almost 20 years since I listened to Decware (one of their first 83/El84 amps).

What amps have you used with the Omega's (just curious).

DeKay
Almost forgot:

Here is a link to a single ended (?) solid state integrated amplifier.

https://avahifi.com/collections/power-amplifiers/products/set-120-control-amplifier

If you click on the review link @ the very bottom of the page you will read that the reviewer mated it to a pair of ZU speakers and compared the sound to that of DH/SET.

Found it interesting.

DeKay


OP if you could swing the Cary V12R and the preamp.. You would be blown away.. It has ALL the upgrades too. It is one cool amp..

I own that amp also.. You can run 4, 8, or 12 valves. You can run 6v6, 6L6, KT66, KT77, KT88, KT90, El34, and 6550s. 12BH7, 12AZ7, 12AX7, a lot of wonderful options with those valves. I can swap valves and bias in 15 min, only because it takes that long to warm up. 3 minutes for the actual work..

It can vary in wattage from 6-8 watts to 100 per channel. Single ended or A/B UL. It is the best amp I’ve ever owned for ease of repair, and sound.
It is just wonderful. The real kicker.. the cost and the LOOKS.. they are just beautiful on the outside.. You can flip the Single ended to UL, by volume down and flip the 6 switches. You don’t have to shut down.

The inside is always a friggin mess. Just lazy as all get out, the way it’s laid out.. BUT I fixed mine, somewhat.. I hate to mess with certain things.. The way the internal wire makes it sound.. I like pure silver solid core heavy point to point in a couple of places.. THAT amp, no silver other than solder an a couple bridges I built and tested.. Common rail ground look nice.. BUT Noise. That mess inside pays some dividends as far as noise reduction..

It does like a high gain low noise preamp though.. I use a Mac C20 for perfection and a C2500 for convenience.

Regards