Budget SET or SEP recommendations?

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

Glennewdick mentioned the Finale  amplifiers. I have not heard them but they have a very solid reputation for sound and built quality. The SET/SEP amps are very simple circuits with few parts, this why they're capable of such pure and natural sound .

The key to their success is a serious effort to  build them right, meaning quality transformers and power supplies. The "junk" versions always cut corners in these crucial areas as George noted in his comments about winding transformers.

The better brands mentioned above won't do this as they know the result will be a crap/junk amplifier. My advice is to go in the direction of the serious intentioned amp builders and you will achieve very high sound quality.

Charles