Dipping my toes into EL84 tubes

@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.  

If one is just starting to look into tube amplification, there is probably no better place to start than with an EL 84 (7189) amplifier.  This tube has a lively, punchy sound and is on the warmer side.  Most people go for tubes for that warmer sound (elevated upper bass/lower midrange) but sometimes that means a more murky or mushy sound.  Most good El 84 amps avoid sounding that way.  It must be one of the easier tubes to work with because most lower cost amps that are not trying to push out a lot of power employ this tube. 

I no longer own an EL 84 amp and I am not familiar with currently manufactured amps using that tube type, so I have no specific recommendation.  I suspect that under $1,000 would be a challenge to find ANY well-built new tube amp because decent transformers and other critical parts are not cheap.  As for used, someone new to tubes would probably need some help finding, checking out and and refurbishing, checking tube bias, etc.  But, if you go the vintage route, and spend a bit more than $1,000, there are amps  that are 60 years old or more that would kill most modern amps when used with reasonably efficient speakers.  An example would be the Eico HF-81 and the Scott amp mentioned above and the Scott 299A or B.  The much coveted Scott 299C runs an entirely different tube (7591, a more powerful tube) and it is killer good too.  

There are a few other tube types that offer similar sound that i also like a lot, such as the 6L6 and KT 66 tube.  These are not particularly popular because one can manufacturer much more powerful amps using the same basic parts if something else, like the KT 88 or EL 34 tube is used instead.  But, to me, the 6L6 tends to sound better (not as hard or brittle sounding).  You can actually get a new 6L6 amp under your price range in kit form if you, or someone else, builds it.  Elekit (Japanese) offers the 8200 model that can be bought for around $800 without tubes.  They offer built models at a higher, but still very reasonable price.  They also offer sensible upgrade options with their amps.  I have not heard their 8200 amp, but, I've heard other models from them and they are quite a bargain.  

Even though we sell our own EL-84 kit amp, which we sometimes build for a customer at additional cost, I went ahead and ordered a Dynakit ST-35. Total cost will be just under $1000. Looks like a fun build as well.