Top ten tube amps

My experience is limited but w.r.t whatever I have heard my (short) list is (in particular order) :-

Bel Canto SET40 esp with manuf provided cryo'd 12AX7 + power supply & coupling cap mods. Superb sound, very musical, midrange to die for, not the best bass control. Better with higher efficiency speakers.

RM-9 Mk1 (Ozzy's amp) - excellent overall sound. Superb PRaT. (Wonder how much better it is in its Mk2 rendition? :-))

K&K Audio's Vivo amp - 300B-based 30-35W/ch stereo P-P amp. Very musical, excellent soundstage depth + width, midrange airiness. Better with higher efficiency speakers.

Raquel: I am curious as to why Conrad Johnson did not make your list? In my opinion they make some of the finest tube gear ever.

The following are some of the better amps I've heard in my system or in familiar systems. Most of them can only be used with somewhat efficient speakers.

Audionote (uk) Sogon
Audionote (uk) Gaku-On
Audionote (UK) Kageki (the one I own)
Western Electric (don't recall the model name, but it is mounted in an enormous vertical rack; the owner paid $70k of a single channel)
Custom made OTL amp (hand-made by a Greek diplomat, around ten models in existence)
Joule Electra Grand Marquis
Deja Vu pushpull 45 (very limited production amps made in Virginia by a retail store- Deja Vu Audio)

Another indicia of quality is whether the amp uses circuit boards, which make assembly less time-consuming and thus cheaper, or discreet transistors which are individually soldered in and thus more time consuming and costly to use ("point-to-point wiring").

A case for point-to-point wiring might be made on the basis of better sonics and lower cost to upgrade or repair.

I believe Thor amps use circuit boards to fix its components, but no signal carrying component is fed through through a printed circuit. The last I knew, Quicksilver tube amps were hand wired.

Cheers,
Tim

If I was not clear, I confirm that point-to-point is superior. Some manufacturers claim that boards are better, but I think that claim is disingenuous -- the only advantage I am aware of with boards is a more consistent sound from unit to unit, because they take much of the "hand-craftmanship" out of the process.