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

Here you go.

http://www.bobcarver.com/

If you're reading this and rolling your eyes right now its quite understandable. The fact is, if you love your difficult to drive dynamic speakers as well as the presentation that only tubes can give-but the thought of large, hot, and expensive tube amplifiers is not appealing then...

The 180s or the 305s are a welcome alternative. They run substantially cooler than my 75 watt ultra linear, bias once and forget it, feedback selection for modern or warm sound, point to point wiring, no plugs or wire boards, no pricey casework, 2 ohm tap, and made by hand in the USA.

So what do they sound like? Well, ultimately, as everything in this hobby that'll be up to you. I'm thrilled with mine? What they don't sound like is solid state or switching amplifiers yet they have wonderful mid bass and surprisingly good deep bass.

I found more answers at 770-667-5633.

Zabiaud, if you really want to find out what tubes can do, you will need to think about getting a different set of speakers that are higher impedance and hopefully a little more efficient!

Four ohms sort of works with transistors, but any tube amp made will not be sounding its best on 4 ohms. Tube power is expensive, which is why before transistors showed up most speakers were considerably more efficient.

Actually, four ohms does not work all that great with transistors either. Sure, you might get more power, but the distortion will be higher and you will hear it in the form of brightness/harshness. A transistor amplifier will sound smoother and more detailed driving a higher impedance. Plus, speaker cables are far more critical for 4 ohms- they should never be run distances of over 5-6 feet, wheras with a 16 ohm speaker you can get away with hardware zip cord and it will work pretty good. Something to think about.

Audiofeil..your comment that you need to go to Canada to buy Psvane & Shuguang tubes from Grant Fidelity is completely false. Grant Fidelity ships from three locations and ships worldwide. If your in the States the tubes will ship from their warehouse in Las Vegas. They also ship from their other warehouses in Calgary and China.

Audiofeil..just received an email from Rachel at Grant Fidelity. All Psvane tube orders ship direct from their Hong Kong warehouse to the U.S., Canada and around the world with free Air Mail Shipping.

For those speakers and your goals, the bel canto ref1000m or 500m class d amps might work well. They are smooth and liquid sounding i would say though not inherently warm though results in that regard may vary depending on speaker and preamp used. I use an arc tube preamp with mine to very good effect in that regard.