Tube or solid state

Had a Gryphon Diablo 300 integrated amp (ss) with an ARC Ref 2SE phonostage.  Awesome combination - added some tube flavor to the music. I think the ss/tube combo is a good compromise.

Tube amps in my opinion are too high maintenance, although they sound good for certain music. In a world of growing shortages, tubes may increasingly become difficult to find and expensive to buy. I like the idea of a tube preamp coupled to a nice solid state amp. Besides, small signal tubes last quite a long time depending on the design of the tube preamp.

Can someone recommend me a good tube preamp that would fit on a desktop $500 budget?

@audiomike33 

https://www.schiit.com/

https://www.schiit.com/products/saga-2 Under $500

I live close close by. I like more vintage gear, but they make very nice affordable sounding equipment, very nice on there demo floor. Made in USA etc. 

I have there pricer Dac and their cheap passive sound great! 

Below is the typical form of reproduction of a "square" signal by a very good tube amp, at 100Hz, 1000Hz, and 10KHz, I let you judge the massacre...

@spaceguitarist FWIW there are tube amps that can reproduce those squarewaves and do it properly, on account of having full power response to less than 2 Hz on the bottom end (so no measurable square wave tilt at 20Hz) and response well past 100KHz on the top end.

Just so you know.