[Quiet Earth]

I'm getting slightly jaded and a little tired of the rat race, and I just want to be able to sit down and actually enjoy my music.

I have been on a merry-go-round of equipment, and I feel like I am very close; something just doesn't sound "right."

I am not looking for that "tube flavor" so much as a more organic and natural sound.

Man, that's exactly the way I felt before I discovered low powered, single ended triode amplification with reasonably efficient speakers. The first time I heard an SET amp, I just knew that it was for me. Now that I own one I am buying a lot more records and CDs and I even make cassettes for fun (don't laugh ). I  also listen to all of my records and CDs, no matter how good or badly they were recorded.  I can't get enough music in any format and I have a hard time walking by the system without listening to it. (Thank God my family tolerates me!)

A few things worth mentioning to keep this rambling excitement relevant to the OP:

My room is about the same size as yours.

My first pair of "reasonably efficient" speakers were 93dB and 6ohms.

My SET amps are 9 Watts per channel.

I think that 90dB avg. SPL is loud on my Radio Shack SPL meter.

I realize that not everyone is enamored with SET amplification like I am. I'm just passing on my enthusiasm.

I owned three or four different push pull tube amplifiers long before discovering single ended topology.

You can get a good SET for 6 grand.

[Quiet Earth]

I wanted to make sure I wasn't blowing smoke on the "get off the merry-go-round" issue, so I just dug up the reciept from the file cablinet. I purchased my first and only SET amps in 2004. Holy cow, time flies when you're having fun. Maybe they really are time machines. 

BTW, I know there ain't no way in heck you're going to accept less than 10 watts. I'm just casting my ballot full of hope and enthusiasm. I met a few guys that like the sound of SETs and even admit that they play loud enough, but they still won't buy one because they can't sleep at night knowing they have less than 10 watts per channel. I'm cool with that. 

[Listens2tubes]

As to watts are watts: Tube amps just play louder. One other differance is the lack of appreciable differance when going from the 8 to 4 ohm speaker taps. SS will often double wattage from the 8 ohm to the 4 ohm taps, not so with tubes. Look back at Frank's first post where he says "you will find an AVA Ultravalve amp to be as powerful as a typical 100W/Ch solid state amplifier." That's 30 watts tube style.