If you have a small room and don't play your music loud I would recommend a 2a3 base amp. They put out about 3.5 watts and is probably one of the best sounding tubes available. 300b based amps tend to be very popular since they can run on any speaker that are fairly effecient (91db or above) and have almost the same sound quality of as the 2a3's. 300b tubes however can cost alot if you get into tube rolling with a NOS WE 300b going for almost $1000/matched pair.
The el-34 are usually used in push pull designs which do not sound as good as the SETs. They have more power and handle more difficult loads. However, don't get me wrong, this is relative statement since they can sound better than most SS amps costing many times more.
If you don't mind a little soldering, I would go with one of the bottlehead parafeed amps. They probably sound better than any other tube amp under 5k.
The el-34 are usually used in push pull designs which do not sound as good as the SETs. They have more power and handle more difficult loads. However, don't get me wrong, this is relative statement since they can sound better than most SS amps costing many times more.
If you don't mind a little soldering, I would go with one of the bottlehead parafeed amps. They probably sound better than any other tube amp under 5k.