First Tube amp suggestions

@perkadin Thanks- yes the sub out is a consideration I am mulling over.  I have an older Adire Audio Rava sub I could put into the mix for now if I am missing the very lower end.

@soix I have been eying those RM22xl's and I heard them at the same dealer that I heard the RM7's years ago.  They are definitely more weighty , but I remember them  less holographic if that makes sense- Could be my memory.  they were hooked up to different amp though - cant remember which.  Thanks for the suggestion. As stated above, starting down this road will be an expensive but enjoyable journey!

@tritube Thank you everyone for such great information. I spoke with the kind folks at Black Ice yesterday and they were very helpful and patient. I think I will be going that route (I am now deciding on the fx10 or pushing my budget to the f11) I can already see this hobby is going to be an expensive one, but am excited to chase the sound I think many of us look for. Thanks again and will post how the my Triangles pair with whatever I end up with!

Jarred at BIA is helpful and you deal with him on issues. No need to worry about email swirl, non-answers, or worrying about having to send the amp back overseas just to get someone to deal with it [or not], on the other low-coast amps that is. 

Some local techs won’t even touch junk any more, not wanting it to come back again for other part failures they had nothing to do with on the first repair. You do get what you pay for on those [other] cheap amps, cheap parts. Some of us call them disposable amps. When they break, you simply throw them away, and buy another. A waste of good money imo.

[integrated] is what you said, right? Well, imo you have to spend up a bit more on integrated amps to get good ones with good parts. If you want to take it next level, some times you can [shop with patience] to secure better quality [used] amps and preamps if you choose to go separates, adding 30% to your budget - but it can pay off later. Many times can resell them for what you paid for them or more years later, only IF they are HIGH in QUALITY build and parts. Not that you want to, but it opens the door up more as another consideration fwiw. Best of Luck.

If the Black Ice doesn’t work out, I highly recommend the Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum 3. I believe it’s among the best “first tube amps” out there. It’s integrated and has 4 inputs plus adjustable and killer phono stage. The headphone output sounds wonderful and thanks to the robust power supply it has many tube rolling options. There’s even a switch for Ultralinear or Triode mode. 100wpc if you can find one with the KT120s or roughly 90wpc with KT88s. Biasing is crazy easy and it looks cool. I often see it compared to the Black Ice and they’re usually neck and neck. Similar price too I believe. I’d suggest taking a look at least. Either way welcome to the tube club! Good luck. 

@tritube whether you go Black Ice Audio, or Rogue Audio, or Quicksilver Audio integrated [for example] or any of these USA manufacturers or distributors, at least you have 1) people who know how to repair the amps in this country, 2) shipping back to the factory is also a more viable option, 3) some of these MFGs will actually still talk to you on the phone - imagine that.

Something to be said about same-country customer service should something go sideways, and usually not. This is what I think most of us are sharing so you have a good tube amp experience. And, these three companies dont get a lot of failures or returns. Since they sell all over the world, they try to engineer out failures with specific parts selection too.

I second the rec for a pre-owned Cayin, specifically the A88T. They sound excellent, are bulletproof, and can run 6550s, KT88s, El34s and even KT120s. They are quieter than some tube amps costing many multiples more. Since the circuit is point-to-point and largely based on the Mac 275, any good tube amp tech should be able to figure out how to service it.  
 

The same candid salesman who turned me onto the Cayin brand (who didn’t sell Cayin at the time) once told me that Jolida (Black Ice) products don’t perform very well. Maybe the newer stuff is much better but his words were the Jolidas “are POS.” FWIW….