Dsaldivar,
Can you solder and build kits?
One of the nicest solid state units available Is called The Amp Camp Kit designed by Nelson Pass. Availability is spotty, but it's really good.
The best tube amps I've found are also kits. Transcendent Sound amps are OTL and an order of magnitude better than any small SET. (feel free to PM me)
I strongly recommend researching these amps before buying anything.
steve
The OTL offerings by Transcendent Sound are alright, but let me give my opinion on them. I have studied the schematics and tried them out and here are my conclusions:
It does get around the need for an output transformer, which is nice, but at the cost of having to use several output tubes in parallel and an a lot of negative feedback to do it. It's certainly not bad, but also not worth it IMO, especially when you have to take into account the cost of replacing output tubes every so often.
I also don't agree that it is better than any SET amp. It really all comes down to design. As an example, the Decware items are good value compared to many of the boutique items sold these days. They are not the greatest thing around, but they are good value. I only wish they would calm down with the wild claims on their product pages.
I do agree with what you said about the DIY stuff though. Pretty much everything by Nelson Pass is extremely good, and the fact that he puts most of his designs out there for people to build makes it all the better. If you are into kits and want tubes though, I heartily recommend the Bottlehead kits. They are very well instructed and put together for the beginner to build, and they sound very good. I've built a few of their designs and have been quite satisfied with all of them. I also recommend the DIY kits from Pete Millet.
Everything I recommended is based on my use with my Alnico Monitors by Omega.