You and I have a lot in common except I'm beyond "starting" to lose hair. I hadn't looked at Jeff's web site in a few months, but when I did it occurred to me that the Spud Amp kit is a helluva bargain at $299. If I were getting into tubes on a tight budget this would be a good starting point, and with a pair of One Pi kits for another $150 plus a mass market DVD player for $75 I could build a $700 system that would outperform any $2K system from mainstream high end manufacturers.