It's at the top of your budget but how about a Shiit LYR?  It's a hybrid and is supposed to drive low impedances well.  The tubes are common ECC88's (same or similar to 6DJ8, E88CC, 7308, 6822, E188CC).  There are new ones being produced and lots of NOS around, some of them for reasonable money...

I only took a quick look at the circuit.  Almost all caps on vintage equipment usually need replacing in my experience.  All of the resistors should be checked too, some might have drifted in value.  You can pad down the output level with resistors but this may affect the bass response.  One...

Good News, John Broskie has more boards in stock for the subline 9 Pin All-in-One Line-Stage Headphone Amplifer (see link below).  I've built one and it's the best HPA I've heard, though admittedly I kind of live in the wilderness and haven't heard much else other than a 15 year old Headroom and...

Neutrik makes minis as well.  Here's the lonk to the Mouser site.   http://www.mouser.com/Interconnects/Audio-Video-Connectors/XLR-Connectors/_/N-778cz?P=1yzvrf4&Keyword=neutrik&FS=True   Cheers, Steve

As far as tubes go the JJ 6DJ8's have been known to be inconsistent and noisy lately.  See Jim McShanes web site.  I've stumbled across some Tesla ECC88's and E88CC's (they're both 6DJ8 equivalents) that performed suprisingly well.  Tubemomger has some (see link).  I wouldn't go overboard on...

Thanks Dig;   The LV kit doesn't have the HP driver.  I'm going to build that off board.  What values are you using for R17 and R18?  The 20 ohms and 2 ohms respectively that are in the manual?   Cheers, Steve

I'm going to build a 24 volt Aikido using the recently released Aikido LV board with off-board headphone driver duplicating the circuit in your 24 v.   Question: How hot do the heatsinks get on your 24 v?  I'm just wondering how much heat sinking I'll have to provide.   I've just...

Garage:   I'm not trying to be a smart a** or rain on your parade but I think you'll need a sand based HP driver if you are planning to use low impedance 'phones. What I wanted you to see was this bit of the 24 volt manual:   Configuring the Headphone Driver Portion of the PCB The...

Garage:   My LV is in transit but I'm planning on a 24 volt version with 6GM8's (bought a few some years ago before the prices went crazy).    Will you be building a headphone driver as shown in the 24 volt Aikido manual http://www.tubecad.com/2008/02/04/24V%20Aikido%20Stereo.pdf or...