No it is my view that system synergy is the key. By this I believe we have to stop looking at stereos as separate pieces we buy from the advice of magazines forums and internet posters but by the merit of listening for ourselves and deciding purely on that merit.

My amplifier is a great sounding unit but it only sounds great when the right speaker is matched to it -- it could sound completely crappy on the Paradigm Monitor 7 -- then again it may sound very good.

I think a lot of negative judgments about tube amps (and there is not really from most audiophiles anymore who have heard good ones). There are many different tube amp designs and there is a certain flavour that they provide - the dual argument of course is that if there is a flavour then it diverts from total accuracy -- which I won't get into but the flavour will have less impact on this than any speaker's impact to accuracy and what is the main point of listening to music is the musical enjoyment.

One of the big lies IMO that does not get mentioned by morons like Peter Aczel is that watts does not equal volume. A 30 watt pure class A amplifier (like the one I posted) (the most linear true the original signwave without doctoring) will play a 90db 8ohm speaker pretty much as loud as any 100watt SS amplifier. Unless you truly listen to your music at the speaker's maximum volume before blowing then paying for watts just is not worth it. Indeed high watt amps often create more noise not less especially separates.

Men are the primary buyers and a lot of guys with penis envy need to buy bigger (bigger amps bigger watts bigger speakers). Tubes have the romantic appeal etc which usually brings thoughts of smoother like a fine wine or old and less technically savy -- and I think iot is really important to get the bias out of the equation. The tube amp I posted I like but I like a SS amp better under $2kUS and i like that SS amp (Sugden A21a) better than some very expensive tube amps or SS ones.

Most speakers are simply not tested with tube amps - generally speaking, at least with Single Ended lower powered tubes amps, they like relatively simple speakers with not a lot of parts to slug the sound and impeded the amp's work. What you generally see matched is horn speakers that have sensitivity figures in the high 90's or up matched with big woofers that don't require much power to move. Small high excursion woofers or worse long throw types require power lots of power and ones with lots of correction int he crossover apparently sucks power.

If I had Paradigm or B&W slim line design speakers I would want a bit of a beefier tube amp perhpas from Jolida - they have 60-70 watt units which should be enough to drive anything from Paradigm with relative ease. Some of the Paradigms have lowish impedence dips so I might run them on the amp's 4 ohm tap. http://www.jolida.com/catalogue/tubeamp.shtml

All connections are exactly the same as a regular NAD or Arcam or other SS integrated. The only thing is that you have to replace the tubes when they go. The EL34 tube starts at about $20.00 for two - so every 2-5 years you might have to spend $40.00 -- most people buy several to try different ones because each kind has a slightly different sound and many claim that some tubes can really improve things quite a bit. In a SS amp if it's not quite right you have to get rid of the amp - with tube amps sometimes a cheap fix can take it from good to great.

If interested you should try the tube forum at audioasylum for way more experience than people here have or myself -- I am not really interested in the technology - I'm interested in results and whether that is tube or transistor or SS or windpower or whatever I could care less. http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tubes/bbs.html