Affordable integrated pure class A?

if you have gathered anything from this discussion thread, it should be that you have to audition the equipment you intend to buy.   Over the years,  i have heard great sounding Class A amps and some really expensive awful sounding ones.  While you compare the purchase to buying a washer dryer, I would suggest that you are making the mistake of  false equivalence.  one is purely functional the other a matter of entertainment and enjoyment.   Washers and Dryers don't activate endorphins  nor do they create harmonic effects or bring back memories.   Acquire  your equipment as an iterative and involved process.  Would you buy a car without test driving it?  A piece of art without seeing it?

Sugden

What are your other components ?  What speakers ?  How much power do you need ?

If high power is not an issue:  Triode TRV-845SE.   20wpc of pure SET Class A tube power with a passive preamp in the same box.

I have seen a few in the used market for a bit over $2k.

I would, budget permitting run and not walk to listen to the latest integrated amp from Krell , the K-300i   I heard it in Denver at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. As soon as I got home I ordered the Duo 300 XD and it sounds as good or better than my older FPB 400cx. It’s , in a word, glorious and runs on pure Class A but not the power hog of its predecessors. So be careful NOT to buy the original Duo 300. Big difference between that and the new XD version. http://krellonline.com/integrated-amps.html

@sleepwalker65 If you have gathered anything from this discussion thread, it should be that you have to audition the equipment you intend to buy.   Over the years,  i have heard great sounding Class A amps and some really expensive awful sounding ones.  While you compare the purchase to buying a washer dryer, I would suggest that you are making the mistake of  false equivalence.  one is purely functional the other a matter of entertainment and enjoyment.   Washers and Dryers don't activate endorphins  nor do they create harmonic effects or bring back memories.   Acquire  your equipment as an iterative and involved process.  Would you buy a car without test driving it?  A piece of art without seeing it?

I know you would ideally audition every combination of the gear you're interested in but 1) you would still need to narrow down the gear you're interested in through reviews and feedback and 2) auditioning say 5 speakers, amps and dacs at once and comparing every combination is difficult! 

So my plan is to build a system based on well reviewed cost effective components that technically at least should work well together. Hopefully that will be the case and I can enjoy it for years without regret, but if not, I can start to tweak it component by component. At least that's the plan.