What's the greatest bargain in SET these days?

Hi, Guys,

Wow... I am away from the forums for a few days and come back to find all these great new posts. You are all awesome. And this is beginning to feel like a midpoint somewhere between tech support and psychotherapy. :-D
Okay, yes, I am making myself nuts over this, admittedly. But since people still seem interested, here's where I am.

My Shrimp preamp and Mahi mono-blocks have now sold. I have a budget of roughly $2300-2400 to work with. That's absolutely maximum, no wiggle room. Of course, I don't HAVE to spend that much, but it's my upper limit.
Here are my options at that point:

1) Coincident Dynamo 34SE. Advantages: great reviews, assurance from Israel Blume himself that it'll drive the De Capo's with no trouble and Brownsfan seems to concur. Point-to-point wiring. Pretty cosmetics. Weight 22 lbs., suggesting hefty transformers and power supply (although some of that is probably also due to stainless steel chassis.) Available immediately. Downsides: only one input, necessitating cable swapping to go from turntable to DAC. Sense that rectifier tube is crappy and needs to be upgraded. Price, $1299 shipped.

2) Decware SE 34I.4, aka "Rachael." Advantages: hand made to order, including ability to dictate some aesthetic choices, capacitor and other upgrades and number of inputs. Point-to-point wiring. Burned in and voiced with actual, shipped tubes. Lifetime warranty. Decware known for amazing "holography" and a certain "etherial" quality. 30-day money-back guarantee, although, with 10% restock fee and return shipping, I'd stand to lose around $225 if I returned the amp. Downsides: lack of professional reviews (although great customer feedback online). "Light" (?) at 18 lbs - Steve Deckert swears by his proprietary transformers and says that they're so efficient and well designed that they don't have to weigh a ton to sound great. Current wait time running 3-4 weeks.

3) Antique Sound Labs AQ 1005 DT, which I can get at a nice discount within my budget as a previous Reference 3A/Divergent Technology customer. 300b based with volume remote control and 4 or 5 inputs. Point-to-point wiring. Designed for the De Capo. Heavy beast... 55 lbs., I think, suggesting robust transformers, etc. Disadvantages: no reviews I've been able to find. Resale value uncertain. Designed in Hong Kong and made in China... not a deal breaker, but something I was hoping to avoid.

And here are a few "left field" possibilities:

4) Bottlehead Paramount 1.1 monoblocks, kit. Price around $1700, preamp still needed, but could add a Bottlehead pre for not that much money. Assembly needed. 300b based. I've built a Bottlehead kit before, but this one is pretty complex. Sound quality and synergy with De Capo's is a guess.

5) Audio Note basic 300b Kit 1, 2014 edition. Great aesthetics for a DIY project, and I'd guess the best resale value of any kit. Available with 3-input option for $2325. Kit seems fairly easy to build. Tricked out "C-core" kit with fancier transformers and caps is, unfortunately, over budget at $3525. No track record with De Capo.

6) Art Audio PX-25 amp with volume control and 1 input currently for sale on Audiogon. Seller wants $2800 (original price something like $6000) but might come down given no sale yet. ;-) Supposed to be reference level, according to reviews.

Okay... what'cha think? Determined to make a choice this week and get on with my life. ;-)

I think buy the one you like best.

Saki, I'm still lurking. I'm pretty busy now maintaining two houses and trying to get the new one set up for my wife and dogs.
Your question is hard to answer. I'm fairly articulate,but I may need to resort to some analogies.

I have a nice little red accord couple with a 6 speed manual and a V6 engine. It's fun to drive and it scoots pretty good. Compare it to a red porche 911. Also fun to drive and scoots pretty good. If you got Porche money, go for it. If you have accord money, it's a great car. Be happy and have fun.

Or how about this. Look at a print of a Monet, then go to a museum and look at the original. Then try to explain to someone who has seen neither why the original is worth millions and the print is worth $1.98.

Same way with the amps. If you have 1300,go for the dynamo. If you have 6k go for the Frank's.

The dynamo is in my opinion, a real achievement. If high voltage and current is not a requirement, it will play in the same league as amps costing more.
But the Frank's are something special. They convey music with a beauty that is to die for.

Rebbi, regarding the Dynamo's lack of input switching, I would suggest that you consider using it in conjunction with Decware's $329 passive switchbox. Both my technical instincts and my extensive experience with a lesser switchbox some years ago tell me that doing so would result in zero sonic compromise, at least in anything less than a vastly more expensive system.

And for the additional interconnects that would be required, consider Mogami 2534-based cable from Markertek, in whatever length is necessary. I and a number of other A'goners have used it with excellent results. Mogami 2534 is also the de facto cable of choice in the majority of studio and other professional applications, when terminated in a balanced configuration.

Regards,
-- Al

Rebbi,
You've done your homework based on the list of amplifier contenders.There isn't a bad choice among them and very likely anyone of them would make you happy long term. You're at a point where ther's little left to add, listening is the next step. The Dynamo with a small investment for switchbox and better recrifier tube is high value choice.

For more money you step into the realm of DHT tubes (300b and PX 25). The Art Audio PX 25 gets nothing but raves and for 2800.00 (or less) is a truly good deal IMHO.The Art Audio is said to use very good transformers and power supply. Me, I'd spend more and get the pure DHT Art Audio. I'm a buy what's really good and keep it very long term type of guy.
Charles,