Seeking advice on tube amps

tube amps are vast in types of design and tubes used. tubes can limit your choice of speakers and each type of tube has a different sonic signature. it would make much more sense to pick the speakers first then go for the right amp....speakers that like tubes usually have a stable 8 ohm impedance and sensitivity in the 90's...some tube friendly designs are DeVore, Coincident, Silverline. I am a SET man using an 18 watt amp. On your speaker list on the devore's are tube friendly and the Dynaudio the least friendly.

agree..make the speaker change before ditching your amp.

It appears that both your current speakers and most of your future choices would call for a push-pull tube amp. No SET or even 300B tube amp would probably drive these speakers in a moderately to large room.

That being said, of your two choices, I would choose the McIntosh MC275 amp. Any future reco's would depend on your speaker choice. Of you speaker choices, I cannot claim to have heard them all, but I was very impressed with a pair of Dynaudio S3.4's that a friend of mine owns. As always, YMMV.

Cheers,
John

I philosophically agree with the three posts so far -- "find speakers you like first," etc. But these folks sound like they are "tube-experienced", and you are a toobie newbee; For that reason, my advice to someone like you, just "getting into it" would be a little different.

Above all, you want your first foray into tubes to be hassle-free. You don't want to have to spend time (at this stage I mean) messing with equipment that won't behave, or that's too high-maintenance for your skill level right now. Therefore, with all due respect for the logic of the previous suggestions, I recommend you focus on the amp first for now.

1. Select 2 or 3 high(er) quality amplifiers from well-known manufacturers (both for support and resale reasons -- this probably won't be your last tube amp ;-) And for now, go with conventional push-pull circuit design (no OTL, SET, etc.)
2. A single chassis (stereo) amp of around 100W/ch should be fine. Many of them can be turned into monoblocks later if, for instance, you bought bigger/different speakers and needed more power.

If you will follow these two suggestions in creating your short list, it will probably include amps from Conrad-Johnson, Cary, BAT, McIntosh, Audio Research. All the conventional 100W/ch amps from these manufacturers are quite capable of driving a wide variety of speakers (even my electrostats) without a fuss. Any more-or-less conventional speaker, like the ones you mention, will perform similarly with all of them. So then it's really a matter of selecting a speaker that sounds beSt to you (IN YOUR HOME IN YOUR SYSTEM!)\

If you will approach the project this way, you can quickly have a really decent tube system that doesn't break the bank yet fits your sonic preferences -- which is what you want right now.

Of the manufacturers I mentioned, probably the McIntosh MC275 (disclaimer: I have one) is the most user friendly AND speaker friendly too. It runs cool, tube bias is factory set and not critical. It puts out a real 95 watts/ch, with balanced circuits, and can be turned into a 180W monoblock at the flip of a switch. It's a really easy tube amp to live with.

Somewhat related. I was pleased that you are focusing on the speaker/amp combo. I believe that should always be the place to start; because IMO, those two elements, taken together, set the sonic character of a system. One can add/subtract different cables, sources, power devices, etc, but they will never override or displace the fundamental "sound" established by the speaker/amp combo.

I think you'r getting excellent advise from the speakers first camp.