Building the Audio Note Kit 1 SET amp...

I agree with Grannyring up to a point. I feel whatever speaker you own and if you really like it; one has to find the right amp to match with it. I have owned many push pull tube amps, low and high power and have found that good single ended amps appear to be more natural and less processed than push pull. If Rebbi loves the DeCapo and single ended you can just find a parallel single ended that puts out 30 to 100 watts that will drive that speaker. Yes they are more pricey but you have to decide on your priorities. Another example is that a speaker may present a load that goes down to 2 ohms in the 40 to 200hz range. This would put a strain on any tube amp push pull or not. In this case a good solid state amp would drive the speaker better in that upper bass range. The other alternative would be to place a great subwoofer that has servo control of the woofer and room correction with that speaker and a single ended and get the best out of both worlds. There are many ways to skin the cat. Personally once I was hit by the single ended bug I can't look back. I feel the amp is just as important as the speaker for the right magic. Single ended does things that I have never heard with SS, OTL, and Push Pull and I have heard almost everything out there. I think Rebbi is going to have to make up his own mind on whether to go the speaker route or to upgrade his amp. I would not go the push pull route. Good luck Rebbi

Read: Magnepans (3.7) AND TEKTON MEET PASS LABS, ODYSSEY, JOB, MERRILL, RED WINE AUDIO, FIRST WATT AND VITUS AUDIO: From Confessions of a Part-Time Audiophile

Yeah, according to the article, Tekton (Pendragon and Seas) can go head-to-head, toe-to-toe with about any speaker you may like using amps wearing big-boy pants.

Bottom line, according to Scott Hull: they are excellent.

Rebbi,
If it was me, I'd keep your magnificent AN Kit 1 and DeCapo's. Do you really miss Tecno Synth bass in most of your listening? I'm usually happy with speakers that can capture the low E-string on a bass guitar. In your small room most Rock, classical, Jazz, voices, etc. should be excellent with terrific tone, timbre, naturalness, and all the other attributes of 300B sound. Why invest/spend huge amounts to capture synth bass techno sound at the expense of your other 98% listening?

On another note, after reading all of this thread, my wife exclaimed, I am still building the AN amp, I love the sound of the 300B tube. So, there you have it, I'm one lucky dude. Coincident Dynamo in my office, soon to be Coincident 300B in my dedicated listening room and AN Kit-1 in the living room. Retirement is going to be fun.

P.S. Really looking forward to Part II of your listening experience.

It's not about music being loud. Distortion always seems louder due to noise. The issue is the contraction and constriction of dynamics that come way before clipping. My 97db efficient, 12 ohm Coincident speakers played loud enough for me, but not well enough over a period of time. Gorgous music to be sure, but in the end the music was limited to jazz and vocals.

It took time for me to notice this and more importantly, other more powerful amps made that easily apparent. You can get loud in your little room, but not the kind of expansive, at ease, fully dynamic sound that is possible with a better suited amp. Sure, you get beauty and tone with the right kinds of music, but not the full experience with many kinds of music.

The right speaker for the amp will also work, but it also has to be the right speaker for Rebbi. It will be interesting to see where he lands. More than one way to accomplish a bit more flexibility in his system. All good points thus far.