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Budget SET or SEP recommendations?

Not in a rush, but considering playing with an SET or SEP.  Have only heard a few.  Something fairly inexpensive, worth trying, but not immediately upgrade-worthy.  Any thoughts, recommendations, or similar SET/SEP noob experiences?  Integrated, or not, doesn't matter.

These two seem to be reasonably respectable for cheap, at least according to the interwebs:

Dared MP2a3c
Yaqin MS-300c

Thank you.
stfoth
glennewdick's avatar
glennewdick
702 posts
 
Look at finale audio a sister company of triode labs they have stuff starting at $1500 made in Canada with great parts quality and options including hashimoto, James transforms. Very good build quality and all Canadian and USA parts with a few select out side sources. I've been extremely happy with my F 3008 300b based SET 
stfoth OP
435 posts
 
AmplifiersTube
Pentode 6 SE 6L6/5881 Stereo Power Amp by Finale Audio

That's here on Audiogon for $1600.
dentdog's avatar
dentdog
300 posts
 
Heard some Audio Mirror SETs recently and must say it was a very good experience. A bit up the scale price wise at $3500 but had 35-40 watts.

wolf_garcia
4,650 posts
 
Recently adopted a barely used Dennis Had "Inspire Fire Bottle" SEP (pentode) amp…astonishing great sounding thing, hand made, relatively inexpensive either new or used at under a grand or so used to around  1500 bucks new. His thing now (he retired from his company Cary Audio) is he builds a few each month and sticks 'em on Ebay, so you have to stay on top of the listings or get lucky like I did. Needs efficient speakers to do its best …look them up as there's a lot of info out there. I did consider a Coincident Dynamo, but the Had amp just seemed too tempting at 12 watts per side, and it's just a dynamic tone bomb that seems like a steal. 
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
6,996 posts
 

Hello stfoth,

I believe you’ve gotten some very solid recommendations for "good" quality amps at a "budget" price.

1 I’d trust George’s opinion regarding the Japanese 300b amp. It seems a well thought out design/implementation.

2 Dennis Had amp used by Wolf. Their current models seem to have improved power supplies/transformers and are built by a known talent.

3 Coincident Dynamo MK II, I’m very familiar with this brand and they are very high quality. Many good reviews and owner feedback comments.

As Wolf mentioned and I strongly agree, you must have a compatible speaker that's easy to drive and efficient. Otherwise you won't appreciate what these types of quality low power amps are capable of.


Good luck,

Charles

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