I need help describing the sound of a SET to a friend in English.

@dekay  Listening to 'K' by Kepa Junkera Urraza right now. Thanks for the recommendation. I spent a few months in Basque country. It's bringing back memories!

I once listened for an afternoon to two of the very expensive SET amplifiers made by Audio Note, original Kondo designs from Japan, not the UK imitations.  One was the Ongaku (around $70,000) the other was a Kegon (more than $100K) up- and downstream components were exactly the same, same program material too. (Speakers were also very expensive Audio Note, made for these amplifiers to drive.)  Both amplifiers sounded very good, but they were also very noticeably different sounding, one vs the other.  I concluded from this demo that the best (or these most expensive) SET amplifiers represent a purchase that one must make with the consciousness that you are buying colorations that you had better like. So, you are not doing your friend a service to just recommend an SET amplifier unless you are intimately familiar with what he likes and that his speakers are suitable.  Into the wrong speaker, any SET will sound like crap.

One of my single-end amps is the Golden Tube SE40. It uses three 6L6 beam tetrodes in parallel per channel. About 24 watts per channel. Rather a heavyweight among single-end tube amps! A lot more useful than the typical 2A3/300B amps! Plus the paralleled output stage gives it a much lower output impedance and consequently better damping/bass control. Am I the only one here that owns one? Production ended in the 90's.

@lewm I was telling @emrofsemanon that if I had to sell all my audio gear, except I could keep 2 systems one would be the TechDas AF1 premium with the Etsuro Gold, the CH Precision P1 in mono phonostage, Ongaku with the Avantgrade Duo Primo XD or Acapella Poseidon. 

I did tell him many times that he has to listen, because he needs to know what he is getting into and that SET is not for everyone. 

I hear a lot about Decware, and I listened a couple in Spain from a colleague with their little horn speaker and when he told me the entire system was under e$3000 I was astonished for how good they sound. 

@emrofsemanon's question got my attention and I am thinking of getting a system from them despite the wait. Is there another USA manufacturer I should try to study and listen?

Thank you

If you’re asking me, I have my own audio passions, convictions, and biases, and they don’t include SET-based systems. Although I do respect the concepts, I am not knowledgeable when it comes to the current market.