Does that mean your budget is $6.00 for a headphone amp with a max power of six watts like the "superb" Topping A90? Which HPAs are on your short list at that price?
View attachment 227010
---------------------------
No need to lash out.
As many here know, my attachment to tubes is primarily sentimental. I'm 80 y/o, can barely hear to 10kHz, and solid-state audio did not exist when I got my start in the hobby with a 6L6 PP mono amplifier in 1958. I also had a prize-winning science fair project that used 811A tubes.
I agree that tubes are archaic and inefficient, and my main and desktop systems are all SS. But I have a "beautiful EL34 tube amplifier" and use it occasionally to warm my little room while I listen to music on cool evenings here in the rainforest mountains of Panama - where few homes have either heating or A/C.
My $750 40wpc EL34 PP amp sounds no better or worse than my $300 ICEpower amps at the moderate to fairly loud levels of my normal listening sessions. However, the warm glow of the tubes, good music, a cup of hot tea and a slice of fresh banana bread - and the memories of days past - provide for some pleasant evenings.