Thanks Charles. I should make it clear that I did not hear the Decware under ideal conditions. It could very well be the case that the speakers and/or the upstream components were not suited to the amp, even though the system was specifically set up for low-powered gear and worked well with a lot of other low-powered tube amps. I did not intend to single out the Decware, but rather, to provide a general caveat on buying without auditioning gear based primarily upon hype.
Pani,
In your specified price range, it is hard to find tube power amps. There are actually much more integrated tube amps in that range than pure power amps. Unless one can bypass the input section of an integrated, it would not make sense to use such amps with something like the M-6.
I don't know about used prices, but brands that I have heard and liked that are above your specified price when new that may be available used at something approaching your range include Ayon, de Haviland, Art Audio and Audio Space. OTL amps, like those made by Joule and Atmasphere are particularly worth looking into where more than 20 watts are needed. For non-tube amps, I like the First Watt amps and Ayre amps.
Pani,
In your specified price range, it is hard to find tube power amps. There are actually much more integrated tube amps in that range than pure power amps. Unless one can bypass the input section of an integrated, it would not make sense to use such amps with something like the M-6.
I don't know about used prices, but brands that I have heard and liked that are above your specified price when new that may be available used at something approaching your range include Ayon, de Haviland, Art Audio and Audio Space. OTL amps, like those made by Joule and Atmasphere are particularly worth looking into where more than 20 watts are needed. For non-tube amps, I like the First Watt amps and Ayre amps.