I think @FiCurious gave a pretty good answer. Buying used can really drive up the value proposition. I bought a Violectric HPA V200 recently for well under $1k and it still lists for $1200. It’s a very good amp. If buying used is uncomfortable for you, or if availability isn’t there, I think some strong solid state options are the Lake People G111 (Lake People actually makes the Violectric line, sorta like a Chevy/Buick kind of thing) and Cayin IHA-6. For a tube amp I’ve been running the Cayin HA-1AMK2 and think quite a lot of it. @Marzipan’s suggestion of the Bottlehead Crack + Speedball is also solid - and a great value if you’re willing to assemble it yourself. Otherwise, there is some guy on Etsy who builds them for a fee - total still under $1K AFAIK. I know @Hazi59 speaks very highly of his work but I can’t remember the name right now, lol. The downside of the OTL style of tube amp is you pretty much have to use them with hi-impedance headphones, which are limited to Sennheisers, Beyerdynamics, ZMFs, and a model or two each from Audio Technica and AKG. There are two solid options for hybrid amps - Monolith Liquid Platinum and Schiit Lyr 3 - under $1K as well. The Liquid Platinum is the amp I primarily used when I reviewed the Eikon 2-3 months ago.
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