What's the greatest bargain in SET these days?

As to which one to get without the opportunity to listen to any of them with the Decapos and your budget constraints, I would look at the ones with the heftiest transformers. As has been pointed out, one of the biggest factor in SET designs, what separates the budget from the pricier ones, is the power supply and transformer. This will manifest itself in better dynamics and improved low frequency performance. Over time this may be the area where by going budget you will recognize the sacrifice of performance in these areas. This is MY impression having listened to numerous SET amps in different set-ups, there is no free lunch unless you go with a more efficient speaker. The fact that you listen primarily to small scale music in a small room may mitigate this to some degree.

Agree with TG.

I have only heard SETs perform to the max with very high efficiency horns to-date, over 100db efficient, similar to Avantgarde Trio.

I heard one set fall short with Zu Essence speakers once at a show. Not with the music demoed (small scale jazz and classical works) but with music I requested as a test (Rush). This was in a typical hotel-sized guest room, not large. The lack of dynamics was noticeable even at moderate volume to me.

DeCapos are less efficient than Zu I think.

So any of these may well work in many cases, but seems to me the beefier designs will have the one-up.

Rebbi, BTW, after the Zu/SET demo with some challenging rock music, the ZU guy doing the demo admitted the amp was underpowered for the task most likely. I wish I could remember what amp exactly was used, but do not. I don't think it was any of the main contenders here.

It registered to me that Zu seemed more interested in marketing how well their speakers can do with a flea powered amp than they were with showing them off at their best.

On the other hand, I heard a Jolida FX10 do very well running a small pair of Nola monitors another time, with sound that hit way above what I expected. However, those were small monitors with limited low end extension and I think that was the difference. Your DeCapos are much bigger hitters in terms of low frequency extension I believe and I think that is where the challenge will come in some cases, if its something that might matter for you.

The compromise I hear in lesser cases is more about dynamics than volume, though certainly volume can be an issue as well.

Well, Rebbi, your head seems to be spinning in the typical audiophile conundrum, what to do? I say this in a well-meaning way. It is really difficult to know which way to go when you can't listen to audio prospects in your own room. Budget restraint often compound the problem. Few brick and mortar stores don't help either. So, when do you take the bungy jump?

You've had a lot of good feedback on this thread. I think Tim Smith's review was spot on concerning the Coincident Dynamo. Brownsfan and I backed up his review. Of course neither one of us own the De Capo's. The caution by Almarg about the ”real measurements” of your speakers gave me a pause. But I will say this: I have heard the DeCapo's many times in friends homes (the older version) and they are all that you have expressed. Terrific speaker. I like my Tektons much, much, more. They are less expensive, more efficient, go much deeper with quality bass, dynamic, outstanding midrange and throw a very wide coherent soundstage. Recently I have played these speakers with Cary V12, preamps Cary SLP98, Audible Illusions Mod 3, Cary SEI 300B, Primaluna Dialogue One with upgraded NOS tubes. I have also listened to my brother's Leben 600 amp with Harbeth HLF5, the Jolida FX10 with Tekton 4.5s and some others. The Tekton Lores and M-Lores with Coincident Dynamo sounds as good or better than all these combos. The differences are in small degree. And the Coincident with the Shuguang Black Treasure 6CA7 tubes, Mullard 5AR4, Sylvania 6SL7 WGT military tubes or RCA red base are killer.

When you asked the original question of ”best bargin” I assumed
fairly low amount of money, like less than $2,000. Is that the case? It seems
that posters are now mentioning much more costly SET amps.

In any case I hope you find what ticks all your boxes.
Best, Rabi

Rebbi,

As long as you go into this venture with the right frame of mind--you are willing to experiment and accept an unfavorable result and willing to accept a bit of financial loss if the choice does not work out--I say by all means do the experiment. It might well be the case that you will enjoy the attributes of the low-powered SET with 95% of your music and will only have to accept some compromise with playing a few recordings. So many factors are at play that it is hard to predict the result and trial is absolutely necessary.