Your journey with lower-watt tube amps -- Can a kit be good enough?

Some excellent comments so far / should give you lots to think about.

a couple to add:

Vkmusic in Vancouver sells Elekit and will assemble them for a reasonable fee

i tried a 2A3 set with my 95db Omegas and wasn’t impressed- lacked drive and dynamics and to me, the mids weren’t significantly better than my modified ST35 in my small 12x14’ room

The most underestimated and sometimes overlooked challenge for me with trying of SET amps was the speaker matching. Getting that spot-on is the key imo. And, I was not willing to focus on one-trick-pony speakers where some do well at this part. If you watch buyers/sellers over the last few decades, this stuff comes and goes, people try it and move on too. Everyone looking for sonic bliss :)

My local dealer sells mostly AudioNote, lots of SET amps and speakers all designed and made by AudioNote to work with specific amps too. I go in and listen periodically to 4-5 different systems there. It’s very specific I find with those systems. Some times you love the sound, other times you don’t, it can vary for some individuals even down to the mood they are in that day, lol.

Some times my local dealer will pair up other speaker brands with some of the 10w amps both push pull and SET. It’s an art form to get it right and years later I can see pros/cons of both SET and non-SET, or Parallel Single Ended amps vs. Push Pull amps.

The designer of my current amps does not build SET any more, and has nudged me a few times to say my current Ultralinear mono tube amps sound better and work better in his opinion for my 93db speakers. So, I defer to the Subject Matter Experts about SET amps now because it’s quite costly to get it right and some of don’t have room for extra speakers just sitting around to swap in/out all the time.

WHEN it’s right, some times a great SET amp and speaker pairing can be absolutely fantastic and intoxicating to listen to if the music is right for it imo.

Seems to me buying recommended amps and speakers that are known to pair very well together is they way to save a lot of time/money/headaches. Best of Luck on the Trial and Error parts it takes some willingness, readiness to risk, and patience. If you get it right it can be bliss too as others will share and not stand down on the topic LOL. 

Many different points of view. I will add a few of my own for the OP.

--a kit would not typically be a big factor in my decision making. Why? Simple. The markup of amps from Elekit, Analogue Ethos, AK kits from kit to pre-built is actually small and insignificant (a few hundred dollars) and if you factor in your time I do not think you are saving much. Now, if you are into many upgrades/mods, if you love the satisfaction/nostalgia of kit building--go for it!

--one poster states that low powered SET amps, even with efficient speakers, are a no go. He knows more about tube amps than I ever will. But I trust my ears. In my secondary system, I have a 4wpc SET driving Omega speakers. Especially since I added a small pair of REL subs, I am shocked at how much of my music collection sounds great on this system. Also note, I run the Omegas full range with no crossover and these are in a fairly large room. Does it do everything my high powered primary system does? Of course not. But 90% of my music sounds so good on this system I could be happy with this for the rest of my life. In fact, some of my CD’s sound better on this system than my main system.

--speaker/amp matching is critical with SET amps.  In this setting, full range drivers are a natural choice IMO.

The only tube amp I would consider after having almost every brand of small tube amps is from Cary Audio the SLI-80HS intergrated….

I would have my solid state handy when you have tube problems or get tired of the  sound when your favorite song comes on with killer bass the small tube amp can not keep up with..

The Sit-4 doesn’t sound like the Sit-3…

I was in your shoes 2 years ago. I was looking at going with a McIntosh Hybrid Integrated amp. I went to Richmond to listen to it and it really didn’t do it for me. They had a pair of Mc275’s that we hooked up and it was more my taste, but brought in the need for a pre-amp. Trying to get the best bang for the buck as we all are doing, I did my research and ended up with building my own mono blocks from Tubes 4 Hifi. I was looking for higher power than you are, I’m running a pair of their M125’s (roughly 120watts each- with KT120’s). Also built the SP-14 from them for my pre-amp. Had a couple of headaches due to the transformers not being wired properly out of the factory, but once we solved that issue, smooth sailing, absolutely love this setup. Getting ready to build a phono stage and get me a Scout II.