High Efficiency Speaker Asylum

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RE: My First High efficiency speakers and tube amps, advices please

Posted by cawson@onetel.com on August 17, 2019 at 10:28:42:
Your posting is full of confusing contradictions! Are you on a very tight budget hence the DIY approach? If you are, it's bizarre that you're considering a custom-built amplifier to suit your DIY speaker.
Getting back to your main question, you ask if SETs are best (even essential) to get top performance from your high efficiency speakers. The quick answer is no, although much is said about the magic combination of horns and SETs.
I have had Avantgarde horn speakers of 102-104 dB efficiency for 16 years and used SETs for several years. Later I decided to find a SS amp that would perform at least as well as the SETs for a number of reasons. I've bought or home tested many amps and have found some that are better in most respects than SET and I'm happy to be using solid state now.
SETs used were:
Art Audio PX-25 - 5 watts - delightful sound particularly with smaller scale music (jazz, chamber) but less happy with big orchestral stuff or rock
Audio Note 300B - 8 watts - not good at all
Graaf GM-20 - 20 watts - a nice transformer-less amp but physically noisy
Art Audio Carissa 845 - 18 watts - a very good amp
Consonance Cyber 845 - 28 watts - as good as the Carissa - kept for many years and still have.
Solid state amps tried and rejected:
Benchmark AHB2, Quad Platinum, Sugden FPA-4, Red Wine Signature 30-2
SS amps kept:
Accuphase A-36 - 30 watt Class A - beautiful amp but a lacking a little punch
GamuT D200 - 200 watts - a brute that sounds great but uncivilised
Micromega M100 with MARS - 100 watt with room correction - good amp but not entirely to my liking
NAD M32 - 150 watts - my amplifier of choice at present
I'm considering an upgrade to the new Mark Levinson 5802 amplifier
I've concluded after squandering lots of cash on unsuitable stuff, that the type of amp is largely irrelevant. Don't look for tube or solid state, SET or push-pull, class A, class AB or digital - it doesn't mean it'll be ideal in your system. Try as many different amps that you can (of several types) and just listen. Your listening room acoustics probably make more difference than the type of amplifier you use!
Personally I'd have just bought a pair of good, well reviewed, properly designed and built, used speakers of the type you want and then look for an amp to power them. I gave up DIY when I left college and no regrets either of DIY-dabbling, or moving from DIY to proper commercial speakers!