I would buy a pre-owned Conrad Johnson ET5, right here on Audiogon and put a Telefunken 6922 tube in, or a Siemens 6922 tube in, depending on the type of music you prefer.
All in, you'll be way under your budget, have great sound, long term reliability and nominal depreciation if you want to go in another direction later.
In my view, this is a great sound, can't miss recommendation.
And yes, I have an ET5 with a Telefunken 6922 tube. But, don't take my word for it, Absolute Sound rated the ET5 as a top value award winner in/around 2015, and that's when the unit listed for nearly $10,000.