Newbie Can't Decide Which Tube Amp

Carver 275-I have one and you won't look back at 2500.00 

The Bob Latino power amps are always going to be your best value.  They are universally admired.  His ST-120 is a real Mac 275 killer.  But in your budget, you could readily afford his M125 mono block power amps which put out 120 watts each.   All of his amps are available either in kit form, or fully assembled and tested.  They have excellent tech support for kit builders and you won't end up with a mystery brand that you'll have difficulty selling later.

Pricing on the M125 mono block power amps is:

Pair of kits, no tubes $1778
Pair of kits, with tubes, $2233
Assembled pair, no tubes $2595
Assembled pair, with tubes, $2995

Shipping extra.   The kits are offered without tubes for those people who have a particular preference for other brands, or perhaps already have some they want to use.   No need to buy tubes you're not going to use.

These are extremely well engineered.  Nobody's cutting corners on these designs.    There is a great deal of useful comment and information on his amps at The Dynaco Tube Audio Forum.

I own the PrimaLuna Dialogue Premier HP with the stock tubes.  I use it with Focal Diablo Utopia III's.  I really like it, it is hassle-free, sounds great, and can switch from Pentode to triode mode with a remote. 75wpc with the stock tubes. I highly recommend it.

op

i have been curious about the carver unit as well -- carver is definitely a mad genius always thinks creatively -- but between my linear tube audio and arc units, i just don’t see the need for trying another tube amp

that being said, for ~4 grand, primaluna is an obvious choice, a lot of value for the $ -- or an older arc like a vt100 series or ref110 - these make zero apologies to current day tube amps much more than what they cost used today

a steal at the asking price .... https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649698504-audio-research-vt-100-mk-iii/ ... if your space constraints allow

with sonus fabers, i think you want more high end sparkle in the feed to the speakers, i would go with an arc unit over primaluna

Frequently available used in your price range:

• Music Reference RM200 MK1 or 2
• Manley Snapper monoblocks
• Quicksilver VR4 monoblocks
• McIntosh MC275 MK V or VI