[scottmandue]

I have a storage room off of my garage and I am thinking of setting up a small (12 X 16) listening room to escape to. We will discuss acoustics and construction latter, let's focus on audio.

I was looking at tube amps from China on EBay and you can get a preamp for around $350-400 USD and a power amp for $300-350 USD however because they are so heavy I am looking at +/- $300 shipping EACH.

At that price and the possible dubious quality of Chinese equipment I think I can maybe buy local.

Please note that I have a home theater w/sub-woofer upstairs to listen to loud rock and roll. This will be a low watt esoteric system for listening to jazz and classical.

So with a $2000 budget I am looking at, 1 tube power amp, 1 tube preamp, 1 dedicated CD player, 2 small high efficiency speakers. Yes I know you can spend more that $2000 on any one piece of equipment above but this is an exercise in how much sound can you get for a little bit of money.

To save money I am willing to buy used or I am pretty handy with a soldering iron so I am willing to DIY... only caveats are:

1. Buying used, I'm the kind of guy that doesn't buy new until the old stuff starts to smoke. I know there are people who habitually upgrade their system ever few years so I'm pretty sure there is good used equipment out there but it worries me a little bit. (Kind of like buying a used sports car, was this guy tracking the car every weekend or just using it to cruise the beach on Sunday afternoons)

2.DIY, I like building things but I get distracted and/or frustrated easily so it would have to be a well made unit with all the parts. If I can spread the parts out on a bench and put in a couple of hours a night without having to stop and run for little bits and pieces that the manufacture left out I can do that. (I used to build R/C cars back when all you got was a box full parts and you had to build it yourself. My friend even bought one and I put it together for him). One thing that bothers me about DIY kits is the prices... buy this amp for $1000 or save some money and get the kit for $900 (?)

Let's talk tubes!
In order of preference I'm thinking
(Power) KT88 6550 2A3 300B 6L6 6V6 - I haven’t listened to all of these so I am open to suggestions.
(Preamp) Don't know, give me some suggestions, what's hot? Most of what I have seen is 12A(?)7

Speaker recommendations are appreciated also.

Thanks,
Scott