Seeking advice on tube amps

T, I relize you have now committed to the 'speaker first' process, which I highly indorse (like Tvad, I have wasted a lot of money trying speakers without paying enuf attention to proper amp matching, just using what I had on hand), but FWIW slowing down the process is a very good thing, because matching amps and speakers to get what YOU want to hear isn't a walk in the park.

Its easy to buy based on what you THINK you read in a review, but reviews can be a serious trap for the unwary, those who are unfamilar with the lingo, or the priorities assigned to the reviewer, and interpert them too literally. For example, I didn't think that 6moons review of the Genesis was all that much of a 'rave', in fact it convinced me that I didn't need to explore it further than the review, even though I was/am in the market for a high quality tube amp.

As I said, FWIW.

Tmesselt,

Yeah, we've all been in your shoes. Just enough money for one upgrade, but needing (well, wanting really!), to do two upgrades.

One thing I have done is to do the optimal upgrade first, and do it properly, and then do a "place-keeper" upgrade quickly thereafter. As an example, about 5 or 6 years ago, I wanted to upgrade my speakers first, and then my amplifier second. I finally settled upon the Revel Studio speakers, but I knew that my amplifer was not quite up to the task of driving the Studios, as it was not quite powerful enough. (At the time, I had a Mark Levinson No. 27 stereo amp, that was only a 100 wpc amp.) So what I did was buy the Studios, and live with the somewhat inferior sound for a couple of months, while I sold the Levinson No. 27 amp (for $1,500). As soon as I sold it, I quickly bought a "place-keeper" amp, a used Levinson No. 23, (for $2,000), which had 200 wpc, which was the proper power for those speakers.

FYI, what I mean by a "place-keeper" amp, is one that is of sufficient quality, (and more importantly "power", in this case 200 wpc), that it will work for the time being, but as soon as finances permit, will be upgraded to something more fitting the speakers you've chosen. Typically, using a vintage amp works best as they can be bought, and more importantly sold, for nearly the same price, so that you don't lose a significant amount of money, as you know you'll be upgrading it within the next year or so. Ultimately, I sold the Levinson No. 23, (for $1,800, which was only a 10% hit for two years of use), and I ended up with the Lamm M2.1 monoblock amplifiers, which drove the Revel Studios to their ultimate best sound. And in fact, the Lamms were so good, that I kept them when I finally upgraded beyond the Studios to my current speakers, the Eggleston Works Andra II speakers.)

That is my two cents worth anyway.
Good Luck in your search!

First... lots of great advice here that is backed up with meaningful reasoning and experiences .

But , my experience has shown me that the amp can affect how a particular speaker will sound especially if it is a neutral and revealing speaker .

Case in point , the particular speaker that I am now using sounded just wonderful with a tubed intergrated amp . And just terrible with a SS amp driven by a tubed pre . A different speaker was ok through the tubed pre/SS amp and really dark and muddy through the tubed int. ! A third brand of speaker barely showed any difference at all between the two different amp setups . These auditions were done in the same location with the same cables , source and music .

That day showed me the importance of system synergy .
Shop for your speakers first if you want but please pay attention to what is driving them !

Good luck .