Budget SET or SEP recommendations?

Easy - Almarro A205

Definitely a +1 for the Dynamo 34SE MKII.With the correct tube complement I don't believe it can be surpassed for performance at the price point.

Thanks, Seikosha.  Maybe the Mini Torii might not be the best way to dip my toes in, if I can't find one to listen to.

On the Dynamo--do you run it with a preamp, or do you find the built-in volume sufficient?

I’m not familiar with a Cary "house sound" although I’ve read around 4,612 reviews of Cary stuff over the years…I admit to having simply "rolled the dice" with this amp after buying some relatively efficient (93db) speakers. I get the "mixed reviews" thing but I found mostly positive stuff about these amps when used with the proper speakers, and simply feel Had is hilarious and certainly seems to know what the hell he’s doing…hype from the person making the amp isn’t always the most unbiased source, but in this case he seems to be on to something with this "Pentode Single Ended" design (his description of just that bit is cool…maybe nonsense to some, but cool). I get that it’s often just good luck to stumble upon something that works well with your existing gear, although if the front end of the system is well sorted stuff generally works well. After 5 decades of gear sorting I was actually surprised by how great this little amp sounds. Maybe I’ll stick a premium fuse in it (kidding…that was for Charles1dad…heh heh).

Oh, no, Wolf.  I feel like I'm getting very good advice/suggestions, here!  Please don't derail it with talk of fuses!