Help: low Maintenance Tube Amp short list.

Zaikesman, I have a small listening room. My system consists of Decware preamp, two no-name 60wpc tube amps(low quality), Pioneer DVD player as transport, Bel Canto Dac, audioquest cables, and a pair of Silverline Panatella II speakers. I recently switched from B&W DM602s over to the Silverline speakers. My room is very small and it couldn't hanle large, full-range speakers, so I switched to the Panatellas which are basically floor stand and monitor, all in one, plus their frequency range goes much lower than the DM602 and they are very tube friendly speakers.

I listen to everything from rock to classical, but lately I have been more into classical than anything else. I have two pieces left to finish my modest system; a subwoofer(probably a Rel Strata III) and the amplifier. Audiogon has been a good ride so far.

After much trial and error I have found the right tube amp for me and it fits what you are looking for. Aronov LS960.
60 watts, auto biasing, and can use 6550, KT88's or KT90 tubes. Simply the best sounding I have heard. Kinda like a Jadis with bass. Other great tube amps worth a try are VAC and Musical Reference.
by Bin

Matchstikman, it's interesting that you already own tube amps, given that you seemed to come across as if you were a tube novice, and I guess you should have a better idea of what it is you want than your question may have led me at first to assume. Well, since you say your current amps are "low-quality", then what you can expect with something better is primarily a superior power supply, output transformers, and passive parts/construction, although different circuit designs and execution will still sound different from one another. But in general, you can look foward to more tonal neutrality, frequency extension, dynamic capacity, and resolution/transparancy with a better tube amp, while still retaining the traditional tube-amp virtues of spatiality, harmonic purity, and lack of textural coarseness. Good luck with your search!

Bin, thanks for the tip. I looked up the Aronov LS960 and on paper the numbers add up for me. That one goes on my short list.

Don't know what your budgetary considerations might be, but my suggestion would be Mike Sanders' Quicksilver Triode. It is not on their website last time I looked (hope he gets it up there soon), but I know Mike is making them and selling them. I have two friends on the East coast who own these amps and cannot say enough good things about them. Like the BAT and the LAMM, they utilize the Russian 6C33C tubes and put out 65 watts in triode. I've owned three different pairs of Quicksilver amps and have loved every one for its own qualities. My current favorite amps are a pair of 300B SET's Mike made as prototypes, which I use in my home system with Klipsch La Scala's. His amps are all hand-wired and overbuilt like tanks. The Triodes are about $5.8K a pair. His V4 amps are KT88 based and are around $4K pair. The later can be found used ocassionaly. I doubt you will find the former on the used market..you would have to call Mike Sanders to inquire further about them. He sent me a picture of one. It appears to be on a similar chassis to the V4's. I posted the pic - you can see it here:

http://www.nwlink.com/~jax/TRIODE~1.JPG