[geowak]

Stay in the tube camp. Don't go to the dark side. Check out the Line Magnetic 219IA if you retire the AR amps. Deceptively powerful 24 watt SET. Also keeps 42K of the 50K budget in your pocket.

I can agree with Mick here. I also have a Line Magnetic Audio integrated amp, that I really like alot. It sounds fantastic and is not as expensive as say ARC. Great budget tube amp to get your feet wet. Of course, one must get some NOS American made tubes to plug into it!

[rbwalt]

music reference rm200 with drive difficult loads. is very very reliable, sounds great, built in the usa by one of the top 3  audio designer's around. if you can afford it the RM9SE, though there are not many new ones left and they are not cheap. there is allot of crap out there as we all know so be careful.

good luck!

[ErikMi]

I'd look at the Ayon Orthos XS  http://highfidelity.pl/@main-451&lang=en  Ayon are very reliable, also the XS have the power and finesse that the Carbon 8's need.. and being a long time ProAc owner, I can tell you that Proac's love tubes, period.

Also the VAC amps and the VTL are great choices.. and if you really have to go solid state then they must be pure class A.. Accuphase, or the Dan D'agostino amps

ARC power amps as good as they sound have in my opinion always had issues.. the biggest is that they don't fuse our protect the amps against tube failure.. When a tubes goes bad .. and they do, it almost always means fried biasing resisters or the like and then a trip to ARC..