Hi Cottguy,
Haven't been on A'gon in a while but have read this whole thread with great interest. Been in this hobby for about 30 years now and have read countless reviews of high end gear over the years and owned lots of gear too. I sold audio gear at the retail level many moons ago and have been very lucky at putting together very musical systems for not a lot of money. Its very easy to spend a lot on this hobby. I always have taken pride in putting together very musical systems, giantkiller rare components that sound 90-95% as good as stuff costing many $1000's more.
Having said all that, there is a lot to digest here. I agree with Inna, Mapman, and others with a lot of their ideas and comments, and my advice might shoot in the face of logic and I wouldn't believe it, if I hadn't heard it with my own ears.
I'm going to offer an opinion based on an audition that flies counter of what most people believe here, and I wouldn't believe it myself, if I didn't hear it.
Room acoustics will play probably the most important role here because if you have a lousy room acoustically, the most expensive gear in the world will not sound so great if you start off on a bad foundation, so I would invest part of that budget getting the room acoustics right, or as right as you can.
The tube amp will be playing heavily, so you want something that runs tubes conservatively and has heavy duty trannies. Organ amps make great tube amps because the transformers are so heavy duty, they are designed to be on all the time. I owned one for many years, a modified Conn organ amp, it was 8 wpc in push pull triode using 6BG6 tubes and was one of the finest amps I ever heard. Outperformed a McIntosh 225 which was according to TAS, their best sounding stereo tube amp, althought the MC240 and MC275 were more popular. It's a stretch, I understand, but I would consider taking a chance on it. Will Vincent makes a very nice looking modded Baldwin organ amp that probably would be very reliable in your situation. The higher power would compliment the Vandersteens that you seem to really like.
The other idea that you seem to be leaning towards, as I read thru the thread, is that you might be considering higher efficiency speakers. I have heard a 2 wpc 2A3 amp fill a huge hotel meeting room being played on ultra efficient horn speakers. That's a whole different animal from a very lush push pull tube amp; however, I think that low power-high efficiency spkrs is the best sound of all - hence my username.
I once went to a high end show and over the course of the day, I heard all kind of different tubes and tube topologies. SE, SET and push pull amps, wired in triode, pentode, Class D amps and SS amps with tube preamps and after the day, I concluded that my favorite was a SET amp which used interchangeable triode tubes from 2A3, 45, 50, 10's, 300b's with single driver speakers. I also liked el84 tubes which are also reasonably low powered. My least favorite were the highest powered amps. The class D amps matched with a tube preamp was also a nice combination.
The most interesting thing was that the room with this high end SET amp with the $5000 single driver speakers that sounded amazing had the cheapest sources. They used a first generation cd player with one of those cheap 1980's close n play turntables, hardly even mid fi but it all sounded wonderful! The thought of coupling cheap source components with great gear defies logic, certainly the logic that Ivor T. from Linn always espoused. Having said that, I would consider a classic turntable, one with a repeat function so you can hear the record over and over without having to get up and change it every 20 minutes. I had a fully manual Rega table for over 20 years, now at 55, I never want to get a manual table again.
A few years ago, for $125, I bought an elegant Kenwood KD2055 or 3055, I forget the exact model, with corian base and put a good cartridge on it and was in heaven. You don't have to spend gobs of $$$ in this hobby, its all about system synergy. I've bought plenty of used gear and have always gotten lucky that they all seem to work really well together.
I was never a Magneplanar fan as many folks are, they look fantastic, but the small sweet spot always got in the way of enjoying them. An on interconnects, I try not to go to crazy about it, as long as I have something good, I don't obsess about it. A good silver interconnect makes me happy. I also heard the Goertz speaker wire and you can't go wrong with that either.
Sorry to be so long winded here, a nice single ended triode amp with the high efficiency Zu's or other single driver or horn speakers would be very pleasing. You might even prefer it to Vandersteens which are lush sounding but not as transparent. Keep us posted on the RMAF and enjoy the journey :-)
Lou
Haven't been on A'gon in a while but have read this whole thread with great interest. Been in this hobby for about 30 years now and have read countless reviews of high end gear over the years and owned lots of gear too. I sold audio gear at the retail level many moons ago and have been very lucky at putting together very musical systems for not a lot of money. Its very easy to spend a lot on this hobby. I always have taken pride in putting together very musical systems, giantkiller rare components that sound 90-95% as good as stuff costing many $1000's more.
Having said all that, there is a lot to digest here. I agree with Inna, Mapman, and others with a lot of their ideas and comments, and my advice might shoot in the face of logic and I wouldn't believe it, if I hadn't heard it with my own ears.
I'm going to offer an opinion based on an audition that flies counter of what most people believe here, and I wouldn't believe it myself, if I didn't hear it.
Room acoustics will play probably the most important role here because if you have a lousy room acoustically, the most expensive gear in the world will not sound so great if you start off on a bad foundation, so I would invest part of that budget getting the room acoustics right, or as right as you can.
The tube amp will be playing heavily, so you want something that runs tubes conservatively and has heavy duty trannies. Organ amps make great tube amps because the transformers are so heavy duty, they are designed to be on all the time. I owned one for many years, a modified Conn organ amp, it was 8 wpc in push pull triode using 6BG6 tubes and was one of the finest amps I ever heard. Outperformed a McIntosh 225 which was according to TAS, their best sounding stereo tube amp, althought the MC240 and MC275 were more popular. It's a stretch, I understand, but I would consider taking a chance on it. Will Vincent makes a very nice looking modded Baldwin organ amp that probably would be very reliable in your situation. The higher power would compliment the Vandersteens that you seem to really like.
The other idea that you seem to be leaning towards, as I read thru the thread, is that you might be considering higher efficiency speakers. I have heard a 2 wpc 2A3 amp fill a huge hotel meeting room being played on ultra efficient horn speakers. That's a whole different animal from a very lush push pull tube amp; however, I think that low power-high efficiency spkrs is the best sound of all - hence my username.
I once went to a high end show and over the course of the day, I heard all kind of different tubes and tube topologies. SE, SET and push pull amps, wired in triode, pentode, Class D amps and SS amps with tube preamps and after the day, I concluded that my favorite was a SET amp which used interchangeable triode tubes from 2A3, 45, 50, 10's, 300b's with single driver speakers. I also liked el84 tubes which are also reasonably low powered. My least favorite were the highest powered amps. The class D amps matched with a tube preamp was also a nice combination.
The most interesting thing was that the room with this high end SET amp with the $5000 single driver speakers that sounded amazing had the cheapest sources. They used a first generation cd player with one of those cheap 1980's close n play turntables, hardly even mid fi but it all sounded wonderful! The thought of coupling cheap source components with great gear defies logic, certainly the logic that Ivor T. from Linn always espoused. Having said that, I would consider a classic turntable, one with a repeat function so you can hear the record over and over without having to get up and change it every 20 minutes. I had a fully manual Rega table for over 20 years, now at 55, I never want to get a manual table again.
A few years ago, for $125, I bought an elegant Kenwood KD2055 or 3055, I forget the exact model, with corian base and put a good cartridge on it and was in heaven. You don't have to spend gobs of $$$ in this hobby, its all about system synergy. I've bought plenty of used gear and have always gotten lucky that they all seem to work really well together.
I was never a Magneplanar fan as many folks are, they look fantastic, but the small sweet spot always got in the way of enjoying them. An on interconnects, I try not to go to crazy about it, as long as I have something good, I don't obsess about it. A good silver interconnect makes me happy. I also heard the Goertz speaker wire and you can't go wrong with that either.
Sorry to be so long winded here, a nice single ended triode amp with the high efficiency Zu's or other single driver or horn speakers would be very pleasing. You might even prefer it to Vandersteens which are lush sounding but not as transparent. Keep us posted on the RMAF and enjoy the journey :-)
Lou