Best small intro to tubes?

buy from a long term reliable mfg...like bat or arc..

Yesterday I had at home for demo a Opera Consonance, KT88 single ended or parallel feed, about $1,000, not the ultimate in tube sound but better than most recievers. Today at home for demo (from Deets Sound Room), I have Audion Sterling EL34 single ended output "integrated amp" (passive input volume control), about $2,000. This thing is better than most solid state amps in pace/musicality, about 9watts/channel?, plenty of power for my 93db sensitive speakers. For a "fuller" more romantic "tube" sound I would suggest 300b single ended output, most prices in neighborhood of $4,000.....lots of stuff out there under $2000, good luck, Mike.

PrimaLuna Prologue 1 or 2 integrated. Either new within your price range.

I would keep it simple with aa integrated or the Mac receiver is a good idea.

Lots of sexy little tube integrateds out there.

Check out Decware at www.decware.com

You'll be hard pressed to find a nicer sounding amplifier for the kind of money these things cost. you will require efficient speakers, however, as these amps are fairly low powered. They are a very high quality product; Decware winds their own transformers and puts together a very good product. The Decware products are serious high end units.

The MAC1500 receiver has a solid state preamplifier if memory serves along with a tubed amp, similar to the MC225 amp, and a tubed tuner. Any piece of tubed gear this old, unless it has been rebuilt already, is going to need to see a Friendly Tube tech before it is fired up. Rebuilding the things can run into material money if quality parts are used.