Is all the hype warranted

I've heard three Decware amps, including the Zen Torii, and none of them impressed me.  They sounded pleasant, reasonably warm and smooth, but, they seemed "whimpy" to me--lacking in dynamics and the vivid and lively quality I expect from good tube amps. The better sound tube amps are of the low-powered variety, so they may not be able to push a lot of speakers to high volume levels, but within their working range of modest sound levels, they should sound more lively and engaging than solid state amps.  I did not get that with the Decware amps.  They had the kind of sound I associate with inadequate output transformers.

I am not saying that they are horrible amps; they are decent for the money, but, for my taste, they are not the "giant killers" that many claim them to be.  Good tube amps are not cheap because the good parts, particularly transformers,  are not cheap.

Depending on room size, preferred listening levels, and how easy it is to drive you 92 db/w speaker, a very low-powered amp may or may not be suitable.  To be on the safe side, you might want to look at something on the 20 watts or more range of power.  That means a pushpull amps, not a single-ended triode amp.  I would look for something running EL84 tubes.  There are many fine sounding EL84 amps that are not that expensive.  I also like lower powered amps running 6L6 and KT66 tubes.  

Sensitivity specifications from manufacturers cannot really tell you about how easy or hard it is to drive a speaker.  Most often, supposedly compatible high efficiency speakers fall flat when it comes to real world capability.  But, the opposite can be true too.  You will find a lot of indignant postings on the web about how Audio Note cheats on their rating of their speakers and that they are really only 92 db/w efficient or even less than that.  While this may be true, if you connect their speakers to low-powered amps they will sing beautifully.  My local AN dealer shows off the AN-E speaker with 6.5 wpc Audio Note amplifiers.

   SET is an acronym for single-ended triode.  It is a very simple circuit that permits a single output tube per channel.  While simple might suggest low cost, this type of amp requires a special type of transformer that must be large, and therefore, expensive.  Most SET amps are very low in power output.  While I don’t agree that any one type of amp is superior to another, a lot of listeners think that SETs are the most natural and best sounding of amps if you can deal with the low output.
   There are SET amps that employ very high voltage transmitter tubes to achieve higher output, but they tend to be quite expensive, operate at high voltage that might be dangerous, and for my taste, they don’t sound as good as the flea-powered tube types like 45, 2a3, and 300B SETs.