EL 34 Amp Recommendations

I use a Conrad Johnson MV-60 with a 2wq now, and absolutely love it. The magic midrange, beautifully natural sound, and dynamics are great since the 2wq takes a lot of the heavy lifting. The MV-60SE is supposed to be more neutral, which is not something I seek. Love the MV-60.

Music Reference, unbeatable reliability, great sound, go to RAM tube web site and email Roger!

PrimaLuna prologue 6 would fit your bill.

A lot of good suggestions. Thanks all. I did have my eyes on the CJ mv-60 and the quicksilvers. Going to look into the others. I was also considering the Cary Rocket 88. Would like to purchase used and save a few $'s. I have bought almost all my equipment used over the years.

I haven't tried a tube amp before so this is new territory for me.

Consider an amp that can use more than just EL34's (good start IMO).

Also consider that with an auto-biasing amp if there are more than 2 output tubes you should really stick with matched quads. Meaning if you lose a tube a replacement may be too different from the other 3 and the auto-biasing may not be able to handle it. With some tubes pairs are a lot easier to find especially with vintage tubes.

Last consider an amp that has great protection circuit for the output tubes. Without it depending how a tube decides it's time for tube heaven it could take out some resistors. Also a soft start circuit helps extend the tube life.

That being said I haven't seen anything that is all of the above anywhere near your budget. I have an Octave V70SE integrated that does all of that but it is 7k (have only seen 1 V70 not SE used for 5k). So consider these when looking.