In search of low powered tube amp that isn’t overly hot

+1 Alan Eaton 45s

Quite reasonably priced.  Simple.  Love mine. 

Also makes a 2A3 version if you are needing a bit more heft than the 45 is capable of producing.  

Also, a great guy.

Synthesis Audio in Art is an Italian company that makes terrific sounding tube gear.  Their Roma 96DC integrated amp with built in DAC (a good DAC too) sells for under $4,000.  My favorite in their lineup is the $9,000 A40 integrated amp (also with a built-in DAC) that delivers 40 watts per channel and sounds extremely good with a wide variety of speakers; it will shine with the high efficiency speakers you are looking at.  I own two amps that are north of $50,000 each and a linestage not too far behind that price, but if I had to downscale, I could happily live with the A40; it is that good.  You might get lucky looking for a used A40, but in any case, it should be considered as a last stop item that will never have to be upgraded.

I am interested in recommendations for a low powered tube amp that is excellent sounding that won't make my room overly hot.  Speakers are high efficiency so I can get by with 10 and maybe even less than 5 watts. 

@mcanaday Several years ago I hand-built an amp for my bedroom setup. It had to be reliable since I was likely to fall asleep while playing it. I listen to it quite a lot. Finally someone in the industry asked why I wasn't marketing it. I didn't think anyone would want one, since usually lower powered tube amps aren't taken all that seriously. I wanted something built to the level of part and circuit quality as you expect from a higher powered amp so that is what I built. It makes 5 Watts/channel. 

But a couple of years ago a speaker manufacturer was adamant: 'why aren't you marketing that??' I really didn't know what to tell him,  but since it had cost nearly the same to make 10 chassis as it did one, when I originally designed the amp I had 10 chassis made even though I didn't think it would go anywhere.  

I don't think an SET can keep up with it- so far anyway, not heard one that could. Plus its a lot more compact, being able to sit on a sheet of notebook paper with room left over. I'm of the opinion that if you really want to hear the best of tube amps, a lower power push pull amp of no more than about 20 Watts, using a miniature pentode power tube (wich is important since they are designed to be very easy to drive, so allow for a very simple circuit), sits right at the sweet spot. If you design it right, it has the potential to be one of the better sounding tube amps available, SET or no.

I built this one up with black transformers and a blue chassis.  

The Music Reference RM-10 Mk.2. 35w/ch produced by a pair of EL84's per. John DeVore chose this as the "medium" power tube amp in his reference system.