EL34 in triode vs 300B/845 SET

What’s your budget? 

- I've started pairing up my 300B SET with a subwoofer to help with 40hz and below base, I'm wondering if this is as good as it gets so I should just save my money and not further go down on another tube amp.

One of the prices you pay with higher power SETs is that they might play bass and they might play highs, but not both at the same time. The bigger the amp is, the more this is the case.

- Do bigger and heavier tube amp transformer directly improve sound quality? Should I entertain more expensive 300B amps with heavier transformers like those from Sophia Electric?

Some transformers are potted, and so appear larger and heavier than they really are.

Seriously, if you plan to keep your speakers, you'll have a lot more luck with an amp of considerably more power- and it won't be SET.

Thanks my current budget is $2500 but willing to save up more and get something that makes sense down the road vs keep buying and selling.  I'm just a regular white collar Joe so naturally I'm trying to spend as little as possible.  If I'm to abandon SET, then I would be going to some tube amp with 8x output tubes making 100watt or a used Mark Levinson Class A or Classe CAP2100 in Class AB or PS Audio M700 and similar Class D equivalent.  I love clear, transparent but warm sound (hate neutral).  Only few people may agree but I firmly believe good sound comes from high current not high watts even though inter-related to some degree.  High watt doesn't automatically means high quality sound, driving the B&W805 with a 160watt Marantz AV amp vs 35watt Marantz HD-AMP1 vs 8watt 300B SET is my real life example of how sound quality comes out inversely proportional to wattage rating.  


Again thanks to all who's helping me on my quest to higher current!  =)

AVR watts are generally not the best quality since the purpose is mostly for home theatre applications. If you're willing to go the used route, for $2500 you should be able to get a decent but older McIntosh 2channel amplifier, with Autoformers, and get the warm/transparent sound you're looking for. 

Only few people may agree but I firmly believe good sound comes from high current not high watts even though inter-related to some degree.

@hifineubeeThere really isn't any such thing as 'high current'; that's a bit of story created by solid state amp manufacturers. Current does not exist without voltage, and together the two are power. Its a mathematical relationship!

The reason 'neutral' (usually solid state, as opposed to 'warm') might seem unpleasant is due to how the amp distorts. In the case of solid state, the distortion seems minimal, but to the ear it is not, as the distortion in question is all higher ordered harmonics, to which the ear is keenly sensitive (the ear uses these harmonics to sense sound pressure, so has to be able to deal with 140db range, hence the sensitivity). So 0.0x% numbers in solid state amps are easily audible, heard as brightness and harshness.
Tube amps generally don't make as much higher ordered harmonics and so sound smoother and more detailed. Tubes usually do make more distortion overall, but its mostly lower orders and the ear simply is less sensitive to the lower orders. In a way, you can argue that tubes more closely adhere to the rules of human hearing perception. In a nutshell.
I'd be looking at something with 60 watts or so. You can find amps of that power inside of your budget, and that is significantly more power (and likely lower distortion and wider bandwidth too) than what you are running right now- you'll notice the improvement instantly!