I have a friend that likes music but probably can be considered a non-audiophile (not into all the jargon, the marketing hype, the tweaks etc) . Also, he is an engineer.
So he has built a number of speakers (really nice cabinet work, mirror matched veneers, nice drivers etc) for his Rotel system. He came over to my place to hear SETs/horns and really liked what he heard. But he absolutely HAD to in-room measure freq response to validate what he heard. He was pretty happy to see that the measurements were reasonably decent which supported his enjoyment of the system.
I went to his home to hear his newly finished speakers projects (Scanspeak drivers, ported floor standers and a set of book self 2-ways) and brought my Dave McGowen built, PP EL84 monoblocks over to his place to hear in his system. In general, the tube amps were more full sounding, much better sound stage, tonally more real sounding and less homogenized than the Rotel system (which was pretty decent in it's own right, just a bit dry, flat, uninvolving sounding in direct comparison to the tube amps). My friend described the tube amps as "more holographic". Since he is an engineer, we set up a switched A/B box and did quick comparisons (although we did not obsess over matched volume).
It was really interesting to see a technically savvy but non-audiophile person's first real experience with tubes. The bottom line is that he enjoyed them enough that he is considering purchasing a used tube amp (or building a kit). I suggested that he just use a well thought of schematic and build from scratch (he certainly has the skills) but he was concerned that the build would drag on forever.
Any suggestions for his reasonably efficient speakers (~89-90db)? My ~10w PP EL84 worked very well at the sound levels he listens too. On the commercial side, I was thinking about a used set of Quicksilver monoblocks. Any PP EL34 amp would probably be perfect. David'd DRD 300B monoblocks might actually work pretty well but are a bit out of his price range. His price range in <$1500.
