Best Tube Amp under 5K

Atma-Sphere M60 Mk-II

Hello Herb, Might I suggest a used pair of BAT vk60 mono amps. Good luck in your search and thanks for keeping jazz alive! Regards, Tom

I went through the Rogues to the EAR 534 and now have the
Mcintosh 2102 - it is great - the 534 is great too and very much low maintenance - The retails on bothe of these are 3800 for the balanced EAR in chrome to 6k for the Mcintosh .
Both can be had on the used end for 2500 - 4700. You would be pleased with either and I am sure the above selections are very good also. That is what makes this so fun and sometimes frustrating. Tubes are just fun.

There are a pair of Sonic Frontiers Power 3 available on Audiogon for $3,500. This looks like a very good deal. I don't think you can get more power for the money - 220wpc. I haven't heard them myself, but they're Stereophile Class A (If that really means anything :-) I hear that they're neutral, transparent, very detailed, and have more of a controlled solid state sound than the lush tubey sound one might expect from tube amps. At this price they look like a deal - should keep their value well. Good luck.
Outlier

and because of the tube upgrade it has it may be more appropriate for that B&W because it will have a slightly relaxed top end. The ARC is also a fine amp as someone else pointed out but when it's time to re-tube it's not a walk in the park.

The Sonic Frontiers, and BAT that someone else pointed out, are very user friendly.

Also...read the review of the Cary V12 in this months Stereophile. That is like having a few amps in one because you can at the flip of a swith change the way the amp operates.

Full triode, 1/3 triode 2/3 ultralinear, 2/3 triode 1/3 ultralinear, or full ultralinear.

If I could have three girlfriends to pick from any given night that may be a fun thing.

>disclaimer< This is not at the expense of my beautiful 100% Italian rolling pin wielding wife.