Simply Italy - nice un?

[NHL]

The power cube looked a little bit wobbly, how about the sound? Which transistor amp would be fair competition?

:boohoo:

 

[altruistic.lemon]

The answer is not many. Needs speakers that are easy to drive, but.

 

[shafesk]

I think for that sort of price I'd recommend the Cayin a-55t or a-50. They've both got loads more power and they work well with a wider range of speakers. If you have a small to medium sized room, have a listen to the Cayin and Dynaudio 2/7...you can go all the way to the Excite series too and the amp can handle it. The build quality of the Cayins will put the Unison Research to shame

 

[hoopsontoast]

Looks a nice little amp, and good value for a SE EL34.

Plenty of choice for tube rolling in EL34's as well.

Heard nothing but good things about the Unison valve amps, and the one or two that I have heard have sounded very nice.

 

[NHL]

I could imagine that a DAC + tubes would be an ample sounding combination.

 

[hoopsontoast]

Hmmm where did my edit go??

Added around that price for the Simply Italy you can also get:

Audion Sterling (EL34 and KT88 ) SE amps new, great value.

http://www.audion.co.uk/poweramps/Sterling%20Mk1%20EL34%20integ.html

Radford STA-15, the best EL34 amp I have heard, would need a pre but its lovely!

Audionote Oto (EL84 PP) second hand, my choice for a valve integrated around that price, fast and supprising punch for 12wpc.

Ming Da MC368 (crap name) but brilliant value for the money:

http://www.bd-audio.co.uk/Ming-Da-MC368-B902.html

Plenty of Icon Audio models, not heard any of the integrateds though.