Well, rkcstr, if I had to guess, I'd say you're a "do it yourself" kind of person, so build your own. Out of all the electronics projects I've had, I'd say the amp was one of the most simple. Yes, it was expensive, the tubes, caps, and transformers for hi-fi aren't cheap. But then also, don't get caught up in the hype. Basically for someone getting started, mid level tube audio stuff (tubes, caps, transformers) will probably sound better than anything you've heard before (did for me). So, don't worry about making the jump to purchasing the most high end components you can. But yeah, I guess I paid about $300 for the tubes, and about that much for the transformers. Then the few audio caps I needed probably only cost about $50 all together. The rest was just random other caps and resistors and sockets.
Whew.. I guess I did spend more than I originally wanted to. But, I'll probably have the thing for the rest of my life. And, like I said in the last post, it has seriously made my life better! i just didn't care about music anymore, and so watched tv instead of listened to music, which leads to being lazy. Now I turn on my amp every day instead of the tv, and am motivated to get things done!
One more thing about building it, not only are amps super simple circuits, the components are all extremely forgiving!! No worries about static.. no real worries about hooking something up improperly when you're experimenting. Components don't just up and die, like silicon IC's. They sit there and slowly get hot, or Ive even had a tube spark internally when I did something stupid. I corrected my mistake, and everything was fine. I guess I should also mention that the amp has 500 volts running through it so while the components are forgiving, the human body might not be so much if you touch the wrong thing!
