Best value amplifier under or near $6K

I just got a set of Rogue M150's into my system, and they sound fabulous. It is about the 4th valve amp I have tried (Cayin AT88, Atma-Sphere M60 MK2.2, a couple of Jolidas) and by far the best with my speakers, which must be moderately power hungry, as they only really come alive with some current. The M150's are a steal for what they sell for.

I was also recommended the Premier 140 from Conrad Johnson, and the Ayon Triton, although I have yet to hear either.

The Atma-spheres are incredible if you don't need a whole lot of current. Mine were just missing some low end, which is typical if your speaker load is a bit tougher.

I have had the Acoustic Reality 1000 monos for about 3 years. They are very good and easy to move,connect,and run cool.

depending on the room size and listening levels you have a lot of choices in that range.

FWIW.. in a medium size room, 100wpc or so +/- ought to work pretty good on Sophias... and I'd opt for tubes.

Gary Dodd is making some 150wpc mono blocks or was... auto biasing too, even with a cap upgrade you should come out under your budget.

Or you can look into getting a pr of his 120wpc self bias monos with cap upgrade like I have, and be under $3K for the pr. Retubing is cheap too at <$300 for both amps using some NOS tubes and great sounding new issues of EL34!

They are outstanding amps. Just outstanding... and probably why they don't often come up for sale... and go quick when they do usually.

otherwise, in SS-land, if you could find a late model BAT VK500 w/BAT PK. in fine shape... there's a really nice amp. Twin monos... one chassis. heavy and runs hot but a real power house work horse pr of amps with a bent towrads a tube ish sound.

Owned both... loved both. Still got my Dodds.

lastly, each time I saw Sophias... they had big ayre monos running them. Not bad really with that setup, but with a tube preamp they'd sound better I'm sure. I feel Wilson's in general need tubes in there somewhere... but that's just me.

Good luck.

I would take a serious look at a used Asthetix Atlas amp, it is hybrid with tubes and SS technology. New it is $8k.