Affordable SS that sound like Tubes

Many years ago I A/B’d a highly regarded pair of Paoli M70 mono blocks against a B&K EX442 Sonata and was completely blown away with how identical in sound these two amps were and how utterly tubelike the B&K actually was.

The Paoli’s were a highly modified pair of Dyna MkIII’s using 8417 output tubes and the B&K a 200 wpc dual mono SS amp. B&K’s always had a solid reputation of sounding very tubelike and the EX442 didn’t disappoint. One could be had in the under $500 range.  I think you’d be hard pressed to find something as reasonably priced and as tubelike.

@katman 

You replaced the e34's in what?

I replaced the EL34’s in my Jolida 1000brc ( purchased used for $1200) with new

russian made Mullard EL34’s.

A very smart man by the name of Bob Carver addressed this problem several years ago. I found it with one of his Carver M.10t amps I refurbished. Read "The Carver Challenge"

A hear hear for the Wells brand. I have the Innamorata amplifier connected directly to the outputs of my Matrix X-Sabre pro in preamp mode pushing my Moabs and the sound is incredibly detailed, smooth, organic and powerful. I’ve tried a few different preamps with it but I keep returning to the DAC direct route. More clarity without any downsides.