SET the best?

sure glad we revived this discussion,. 

I'm going ~~~300B~~~. 

845's too heavy and out my budget. 

If anyone has a  300B they are not using, please contact me, Budget is 2G;'s

If you are considering parallel SET, be aware of the issue of one tube in a channel pair becoming much stronger than the other such that, in short order, you lose the full power capability of such amps.  Even when one starts with supposedly matched pairs, they tend to quickly become unmatched.  I've had this happen in my Audio Note Kageki, and others running parallel SETs have noted this issue too.  

I have my doubts about any "cheap" 845 amp.  Many really don't run the specified plate voltage for that tube, and the ones that do, would have to be properly built to be safe to operate, and that means higher cost.   The same would apply to 211 and other higher powered SET tubes.  

I hope the $2,000 budget for a 300B amp is the budget for something used, and is not the budget including the output tubes, because decent 300b tube would eat up a very significant part of that budget.  That would leave not much for other parts, particularly the output transformer which is not cheap in a SET amplifier.  If you can build your own gear, the 300b kit offered by Elekit sounds decent and is quite inexpensive for what one gets.  But, I still have my doubts about "budget" SET vs. the many inexpensive vintage pushpull amps that are available.  There is no inherent superiority of any particular design, and a good pushpull transformer amp and pushpull OTL amp can be the right choice to deliver the goods.

There is no inherent superiority of any particular design ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fully aware this is the general consensus in audiophile beliefs. But seems to be, the best for me let say, maybe not for others, is the SET.

Seems to me push pull is the proper tag for that typology, **pushes and pulls** the delicate musical signal apart. IOW shreds, the electrors to tiny bits. vs a SET , pure linear, natural, just stunning. Lets say PP attacks the listener

VS ,

SET gently caresses the music.

Nothing wrong with PP for hard rock, big blues, big jazz bands

larry is correct in that output/power tubes critical for SET. The difference between Shuguang Black Treasure and Psvane Acme 300B is like night and day. Shuguang like $250 pair, Psvane $900-$1k pair. The Elrog, WE, Linlai Elite, EML, Takatsuki will all be $1-$1.7K pair.

I'd never purchase budget 845, we're talking 900 volts, some major hurt if these things malfunction.

I have two stereo amps and two pair of speakers. All-tube preamp (Supratek Cortese).

One system is Quad 2805s driven by Quad 909. They have a certain coherence and beauty.

The other system is JBL 4430s driven by humble AES SE-1 300b, with the 12AU7 pre-driver stage modification Dennis Had described in Sound Practices Issue 6. This modification replaces the 6SL7 with the 12 AU7 driving a 6SN7. Given the humble pedigree of the SE-1, this modification is nothing less than Ingenious. Maybe someday I'll hear a higher-pedigree 300b amp. As it is, I love the sound of this thing. Beautiful, coherent sound. The JBLs are 93dB efficient and I listen in the near field, so I'm seldom using a full watt. All kinds of music sound good through my system.

Re-reading what I've written, truth is I don't think I've contributed anything of value to this discussion, other than to say I love the sound of my humble 300b SET amp. And maybe to suggest that you don't have to spend inordinate amounts of money to get a taste of the magic.