Expensive Tube Amplifiers

I own pushpull and SET amps and my current favorite is a very low powered 349 pushpull amp (around 5 wpc).  My SET is a parallel 2a3 amp. 

In the universe of amps I've heard, my favorite is a pair of custom-built OTL amps that, I believe put out only 20 wpc.  The owner said he "might" sell the pair if offered $250k.  My second favorite is a pushpull 252 amp that is also very low powered and would probably cost around $250k, but I don't know the current market rate (not much market activity for something like this).  In short, I don't think any particular topology is inherently superior and one can find many good examples of each type.

I would choose an amplifier after choosing speakers, because proper matching of those two elements is essential to success. In the late 70s I fixated on ESLs after a brief flirtation with Maggie. That’s why I’ve owned nothing but tube OTL amplifiers although I built a Williamson type using vintage Acrosound OPTs and a pair of 807 output tubes in PP, for a video system.

@dogearedaudio - I can remember back in the 60s, I think, when Heathkit was considered a very excellent amp, and great value for money if you wanted to do the work. 

My experience is, after owning ESL's for nearly 30 Years and having in conjunction with the ESL's a selection of Cabinet Speakers that have been rolled and exchanged for the next better model over the past 30 Years, is that a Good Quality Power Amp' is going to make a Poor Speaker sound its Poorest and a better Speaker show where its betterment is. Today I have Speakers close to me, that impress me, which is what matters the most.

When visitors make statements that are with similar description to my own thoughts, is an underpinning to my own reckoning of where I am.

Today, I am expert at shaping End Sound within the owned System, I am far from system monogamous, but totally system Polygamous. I am at present able to produce a selection of End Sounds within a few minutes of each being deselected and remain thoroughly impressed with what permutation for the system is in use and what is awaiting its opportunity to be put to use.

In my assessment of other forms of entertainment, there are moments that stimulate, it can be a Particular Framing (Dances with Wolves) , a Particular Encounter with an actor (Halle Berry Cat Woman), a Dialogue between characters (Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz - Vanilla Sky), a Special Effect ( Jurassic Park).

Many many will agree with my list from Cinema Experiences and understand why there is an indelible memory, my indelible moments is any of the above films can be quite different to another's, but that don't generate disagreement, as those with similar experience have the common place where they have shared in an experience and been impacted upon as the result.

When it comes to Audio, for myself the indelible memory is End Sound, it is encountering this that creates the energy to return and return for more. If this experience of End Sound that is available, is not able to be encountered and experienced by another, how can others without sharing in the similar experience form an opinion on End Sound value to me and more importantly to themselves. 

No matter how much the basics are avoided, the entire history of Audio Equipment being used for experiencing recorded music as a replay, is solely about the End Sounds that are able to be produced. 

If it was anything different, there would be systems in place without Speakers. Another substitute to create a stimulus that is attractive and wanted to be experienced on regular occasions would be the alternate option.       

It was explained to me that there isn’t the usual distortion that push pull tube amps have because of the single output tube. Apparently with push pull there is distortion when one tube hands off to the other tube.

@vuch This statement is false and is a common myth. A push-pull amp can sound better than any SET by any metric an audiophile might find important. It depends on the topology of the amp and its execution. The reason has to do with how the various topologies made distortion, which is the main thing we hear as differences between amps (in much the same way we can hear differences between a cheap violin and a Stradivarius, since harmonics are how our ears assign tonality). 

If you mix push pull and single-ended circuits in the same amp you can get a prominent 5th harmonic, which is why SET lovers reject such amps. But that can be avoided by simply making the amp entirely differential from input to output, thus avoiding that pesky 5th harmonic issue. At that point the amp will be considerably lower distortion even without feedback and the higher ordered harmonics that make amps sound unpleasant will be seen to fall off at a faster rate as the order of the harmonic is increased. This allows the amp to sound smoother.