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the best 'tubey amp - warm,smooth,liquid' ?

i'm using the word 'tube' as the meaning of warm,smooth and liquid sound.
but i could't compare to some tube amps like mcintosh(mc275), cary(cad 805), arc(vs115) and conrad-johnson(premier) at one place and the same time.
some say mcintosh lean, cary weak and not bloom, arc not tubey and cj no clarity.
i need your experiences and advices.
actually i have a difficulty to match speaker systems with.
zabiaud
meiwan
399 posts
 
You might look at 300B based amps. They tend to be the most 'tubey' sounding.

Mastersound make wonderful sounding tube amps - very unlike the US made amps, which don't have that tube magic.

Of course the brand of tubes themselves make a big difference. Most current production tubes sound pretty sterile, which is what you get stock in all of them.
arh
366 posts
 
The problem is that the sound of any of these amps will vary with the speaker they are used with. Tell us what speakers you are going to use and we can be more helpful
Alan
jburidan
803 posts
 
I agree with Meiwan that you should set your sights on a 300B amp. Among the superior brands are Art Audio, Larry D. Moore, Fi and Wavelength Audio. Many people agree that the Wavelength Cardinal X2 is superb.
hifigeek1
770 posts
 
Most amps with EL-34 outputs sound very sweet and liquid.
trelja
3,223 posts
 
Cary, Jadis, and Quicksilver usually exhibit these traits.

Overall, I'd recommend the (normally) 6L6 and (sometimes) KT88 as well as the aforementioned 300B.
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