Price Paid:  $1080.00 from Taurus Tube Audio

Summary:
I was looking to upgrade my amplifier and considered building a tube amp from kit. I stumbled upon Lois at Taurus Tube Audio in Newark CA. I tried all three inexpensive amps he had and settled with the top shelf 300B due to its better soundstage and imaging. These Goldox amps are made in china and use Chinese 300B tubes. He upgrades the input tube and the (i believe rectifier) tubes with better quality ones. The sound is warm but with fine detail. It was a trumendous improvement to my system. I migrated from JBL 18Ti bookshelf speakers w/ a Paradigm PA1000 sub and switched to JB Labs Cobalt 815. The bass is much tighter and tonally accurate better without the sub and the tube AMP drives them without problem. This amp really made the better speakers shine compared to the NAD. I know there is probably better out there but I doubt you will find it for a grand. I highly recommend this AMP. Louis has great service and even made a house call to debug a sub-hum grounding problem that was no fault of the tube amp. If you are REALLY into tube amps then you should really check it out. He has the really fine high end stuff.

Strengths:
Imaging, Detail, Power, accuracy

Weaknesses:
Some weakness in very Low Bass

Similar Products Used:
NAD 3155 Integrated and also w/ 2155 in Mono

Price Paid:  $1100.00 from taurus audio,newark,ca

Summary:
works great as mid-high amp on horizontically biwired
mg 1.6's. i've retubed this guy (driver tubes) very
smooth and easy to listen to. i won't say it compares to cary, vac or others made in usa but for a little more than
a grand this is a tremdous value. dont shy away from an absolutely fantastic value. louis at taurus audio is a great guy. check him out and discover value and service!

Strengths:
much more power than you'd imagine
much more power than you'd imagine

Weaknesses:
cosmetically challenged,chinese made -could scare away some

Similar Products Used:
vtl,ear,rogue