I was up in a spare room last night and spotted the Voigt Pipes I had built last year for about $100 total (RS 8" drivers plus mdf for the cabinets), and it occurred to me that these could be used quite effectively in a very low priced, low powered system. So I built a passive "preamp" using a pair of Bottlehead Sweet Whispers stepped attenuators and a RS project box - total cost about $50. Then I connected my trusty ASL Wave AV-8 tube monoblocks ($198 for the pair new). Total cost about $350 for the entire system minus the source, which everyone already has. No, I'm not quite ready to sell my Cornwalls and 300B amp, but it's amazing how good this system sounds using an inexpensive NAD CD player. This would be a good project for someone who wants a taste of tubes without making a large dollar committment. The Waves put out about 10 watts, so if you already have a pair of 90db+ efficiency eight ohm speakers you wouldn't have to build the Voigt Pipes - total cost would be about $250 (and a lot less work) - about the price of a decent pair of speaker cables. Fair warning though - I suspect ASL sells the 8's for just $98ea cause they KNOW after you have heard them you will be back for bigger and better.