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.

