Hi Bill,

Thanks for your followup to my original request, but as you can see from my more recent posts in this thread I have finally chosen an amp far beyond my originally planned budget, as tube amps seemed so much better than solid state ones (well, I haven't tested the McIntoshes anyway.... for those I should probably shell out much more than what I consider reasonable for any music).

I couldn't try the Cambridge Audio ones because at the end I've only tried the shop where I had previously bought the Klipsch speakers as for all other shops in my town I should have brought there my speakers and since the Klipsch shop also had some great tube amps that shifted completely my original target I preferred to avoid the effort of carrying around my speakers in several shops.

Cambridge Audio was not one of the brands sold in that shop, but now I'm really happy with my Unison Research Preludio.

I'm not sure how easily Unison Research products can be found abroad, as it is a small Italian company, but I would really suggest checking out tube amps for those who are still using solid state amps with the Klipsch RF-35 speakers. I've read in several places that Klipsch speakers can be a bit lacking in warmth (I can't speak about that because I moved to Klipsch from a pair of old Bose 301 which are utter crap compared to Kilpsch, no matter which side you look at), and tube amps seemed to me much warmer than any solid state amp I've tried. Even the "cheap" Fatman (UK company that builds everything, or nearly everything, in China) tube amps were better, IMHO, than solid state amps at the same price point.

Thanks again and happy 2009,

Giovanni

Giovanni of Genoa,

The Unison Research will be a perfect match for the RF-35's, stay with the stock tubes for now you can change them later if you want. You might want to consider a small sub for the very bottom end of the music but it's not a must have. Enjoy!

Thanx, Russ

The Sovtek tubes should be fine.   The amp may need some break in time to sound its best as will the tubes.  Enjoy!

Sovtek quality is getting much better. I have a quad of matched 6L6GC's and they sound very good. The Sovteks seem to take about 50 hours to "break in". I would just play them for at least a month to get a feel for what they sound like before choosing a different brand. You can also look into JJ's (Tesla) which should be readily available in Europe. Genelex  (The Russian resurrection) has also come a long way also in quality.