What's your favourite sounding DIY/kit tube amp?

[leadbelly]

Maybe it's just me, but it seems that even with all the discussion about various designs on the forum, the title question rarely gets asked or answered. I know it is pointless to ask for what everybody's perfect amp is, especially if you are a designer, and that a lot of other issues come into play, such as how do you compare amp A which has $$$$ iron with amp B which has crappy iron, power required, speakers required, etc., but I thought I would throw out the question anyway. Answer with any disclaimers you like: "this amp was wonderful, but only on these speakers...."

[Sherman]

It was a long time ago but I heard a setup consisting of a modified Dynaco PAS-3 (I have no idea what the mods were) driving a modified Dynaco ST70 (again no idea of the mods). The source was an ARxa with a SME arm and a Shure V15 Type III. The amp was connected to a pair of Fulton Musical Industries J-Modular speakers. The vinyl playing was all high quality. The FMI J-Mods were enormous speakers, about 6' tall and 24" wide (or more).

At that point in my life it was absolutely and without question the best sounding stereo of any type tube or solid state that I had ever heard. It may still be but since I don't have it here to listen to and compare with anything else it would be impossible to say!

I suspect the speakers were a huge part (no pun intended) of the equation. They sounded "right" to my ears. Even the bookshelf FMI 80 sounded great connected to a stock PAS-3 and ST70.