Solid state to tube

Last up is a kit amp by Bottlehead (I've used their early inexpensive offerings for the past 20 years, thus the interest in this new product).

I was not aware of it until a recent "user" post that I read here on A'Gon.

If you are not interested in building a kit I think that they have someone (with a long standing positive reputation) mentioned in their forums/site who will do so.

DeKay

Lastly:

I thought that this inexpensive/well reviewed ($1500 300B based DH/SET) amplifier might be a fun option, but  due to the size of your listening room I'm not certain if it would work.

I gathered that you would like to limit expenditures @ $3k or less.

In my opinion the difference between decent DH/SET and other designs (excluding a few OTL amps I've heard) is not subtle.

DeKay

Quicksilver all the way. I love my Quicksilver Mid monos, and phono stage. 

Thanks for all the great help.

Based on what I have read here I might hold off on going to a tube power amp. I will try a tube pre amp first and run it with my current YBA 1 solid state amp.

I will also try with my Meitner mono blocks to see which I prefer.

I currently use a older YBA signature pre amp with seperate power supply I think when I purchased it back in 2002 it was 10k so I wonder at what price point I will need to be at to get a comparable tube pre

Is your budget for the preamp (only) still around $3K?

I looked up the input impedance of what I believe to be your SS power amps and they were in the 20K-27K range.

Both should mate fine with contemporary tube preamps, but it wouldn't hurt to throw out the model number of the preamp(s) you are seriously considering.

Never heard Meitner and the only YBA was an integrated amp a long time ago.

I did have a CD player and an integrated from YBA's super budget line (forget the name), but they were just OK and nothing like the YBA branded amp.

DeKay