What's the greatest bargain in SET these days?

Smctigue1,
Well, with the Torii's putting out substantially more juice than the Rachael's 6 watts, it sounds like I avoided some disappointment with my De Capo's, although my room's only 11 x 16 x 8, so it's smaller than yours.

Smctique1, I wouldn't be surprised if the Decware's disappointing performance is output transformer related. What you described can be traced to that and a less than robust power supply. Brownsfan didn't have this problem with the Dynamo driving the very same speaker. There's no substitute for good iron in a tube amplifier.

I read that SET amps are more prone to limits in frequency response (ie not necessarily reasonably flat from 20-20K) than most other amp architectures. Low end extension is without doubt where most power is required. Its basic physics. Limited low end extension might help account for better performance at higher listening volumes in some cases. Transformer and power supply build quality matter as well no doubt, but a watt is still a watt and can only go so far.

The Coincident SET sis advertise 20-20K frequency response in their specs as I recall. I would think that kind of low end extension would up teh ante in terms of needed speaker efficiency and overall size needed to deliver flat response down to the usual 20 hz or so from a SET amp.

That's just what I get out of it. Maybe some others more experienced can help clarify.

DECware website also shows a FR graph for their set indicating extended flat response using a "real speaker load" (paraphrasing) but I did not see where the exact speaker load used to produce the graph was indicated. I suspect it was very large and very efficient. Anyone know?

I'd be surprised if the loudness issue was due to the transformers. Decware seems pretty proud of the iron he uses. There is thread on another forum comparing the build/parts of the Dynamo to Decware and FWIW, the decware seems to get more respect from the engineer type guys with specific mention of the capacitors and wiring layout.

I know there is another poster here on audiogon who uses a 4 watt Decware and feels it drives his decapos perfectly fine. Ultimate loudness can be a very subjective thing and two different people can have very different ideas about what is and isn't loud enough even in the same room with the same equipment.