Dipping my toes into EL84 tubes

I have a 15 year old Synthesis Ensemble integrated (Italian) with 8 EL84s.  Beautiful amp, though it runs hot, so you have to be careful with your choice of tubes.

Yeah, best bang for your buck EL84 power amp that I know of is the Tubes4Hifi version. It is based off the ANK el84 integrated. One can get just the PCB off the 'bay for $15-$20 dollars. Purchase the toroids separately or go with more traditional transformers. But I think if one spent full price for the kit you are still getting a good deal... Great price to performance ratio. 

I've dabbled with NOS tubes but one can get pretty great performance from the JJ's & even the cheaper Russian el84's. 

Having owned at least two of their amps, I’d like to vouch for Glow Audio as well. For the price, I think their build quality is second to none. Unless you’re using it in a desktop scenario, I would go for their push pull amp. I set it up for my mother with some Klipsch RP-600M and NOS tubes and I am digging the results.

@medium_grade 

"Having owned at least two of their amps, I’d like to vouch for Glow Audio as well. For the price, I think their build quality is second to none. Unless you’re using it in a desktop scenario, I would go for their push pull amp."

I too owned a Glow Amp One and agree with your sentiments. I also considered their PP EL84 amp but chose the Luxman SQn-150 which at about 3 watts per channel was more than enough to drive my Klipsch Heresy IVs and Cornwall IVs to more than room filling volume.

 @mdalton 

"I have a 15 year old Synthesis Ensemble integrated (Italian) with 8 EL84s.  Beautiful amp, though it runs hot, so you have to be careful with your choice of tubes."

It's the nature of the EL84 family of tubes to run hot when the designer seeks to get maximum plate dissipation out of them like was the practice in days of yore. More conservative designers such as Luxman use the approach of running them more gently to reduce distortion and prolong tube life. Also, not all EL84s are the same as in the 7189, 6P14 and 6P15 that have hirer plate dissipation and I believe pin nine is attached to the control grid or something like that and are not a plug-in.

Check out Quicksilver's el84 Integrated amp.