Tube Amp Recommendation for a solid state guy

Class A transistor amps have many of the characteristics of tubes and solid state but tend to be out of your budget. One of the older Pass Alph (?) Amps might be worth looking at. I would try to borrow a tube preamp as Yoby suggests and see how you like it. There are transistors out there with a more tube like sound than Bryston, but Tvad is right, it depends on what speakers you are using. Have you tried the Bryston on other speakers?

I have two sets of speakers that I use interchangeably, Mission Volare V62 (88db) and Definitive Technology BP2000TL (92db).

The more I think about it the more I realize that maybe a tube pre is the way to go instead. The main reason I was considering a tube amp is I love my pre / pro (Arcam AVP700) and the ability to watch (listen) to DVD concerts in 5.1 DTS. I was a 2 channel guy for years but finally converted (to the dark side) after hearing a friends Bryston/Totem surround system.

I guess I'm derailing my own thread but are there any reasonably priced tube preamp / processors out there?

Thanks for the responses.

You may want to take a look at the Chinese preamps offered by Pacific Valve & Electric: http://www.pacificvalve.us/Preamps.html.

I have no experience with any of them, but I recently purchased a Chinese-made power amp from a dealer on eBay for around $700, a Paxthon VTA-160 (80W/channel using eight EL34's per side). I run it with 90db speakers, listening to mostly classical music. I've been delighted with its sound, and especially struck by the big image it somehow projects, which I wasn't expecting. It's construction quality appears top-notch, also (it isn't particularly big but weighs nearly 60 pounds!).

I'd suspect that you would want significantly more power, though, which would mean significantly more $, and so I agree that a tube pre-amp would probably be a more logical choice for you.

Correction to my previous post: The VTA-160 uses four EL34's per side (eight total), not eight per side. Also, I should have entered the Pacific Valve link as follows:

http://www.pacificvalve.us/Preamps.html

what exactly does it mean to match impedance with a speaker. In practical terms...what do you do to make sure you have a good match?