Vintage integrated amps/preamps made during the "Golden Age of Audio" provide a magic that's difficult to match even with modern gear. During the late 50's and early 60's, these amps were used primarily to make music coming from records (LPs)...not CDs, so they were voiced and tuned primairy for LPs.
I have been using for almost 2 weeks now the venerable Eico HF81 (considered one of the best if not the best el84 integrated amp around) for analog. Last night, I decided to use her bigger brother the Eico ST70 using the more powerful 7591 tubes. This amp is another sleeper with the same superb vintage phonostage with twice the power output of the younger sister (HF81)...boy, this amp had enough juice to drive the Spendor S3/5! I was spiniing record after record last night I forgot it was already 3am! what an experience consiering the amp is stock but with matched tubes..very detailed and way way musical! not as sweet in mids as the HF81(which has auricaps) but surprisingly very balanced!
setup: denon dl103->rb300-> michel mycro TT->peerless 15095 step-up -> Eico ST70-> Spendor S3/5!