Small size tube amps...any recommendations??

Luis- Though your Soliloquy's are efficient at 90db and will certainly make music with 8 watts of power, I'd expect you'd be rather disappointed if you were wanting of anything more than moderate volume from them. I own 8 watt SET amps and have used them with a pair of 89db monitors and though they were magic at moderate volumes they really were lacking at anything more than that. I was playing that combination in a relatively small room also. I'd suggest if you want to run with minimal power that you draw the line around 25-35 watts for your 5.3's In that range you will be likely looking at EL34 based amps. You did not mention a budget, and as you know the range is wide. I like my Quicksilver Mini-Mites and have owned 4 different pairs of Quicksilver amps and have enjoyed every one for different reasons. The Mini-Mites offer tremendous bang for the buck at $995 pair. If you are looking for an integrated solution my friend has been enjoying his 5.3's with a Jolida 502B. In the integrated realms I might also suggest an Audiomat Arpege.

Not sure why you've fixated on small tubes (most men are quite the opposite). Amps are very system-dependent and the amp you heard years ago may or may not fit in your system in a similar way. I truly doubt you'd be happy with a flea-powered amp and those speakers though. Just one opinion.

To answer your question more directly; My guess is it would have been EL-84 based amp you heard. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is the one Decware makes. Certainly there may be many others, but I am not familiar with any of them, and have no experience with the Decware to speak of. That amp puts out around 5 watts. Perhaps it would drive your speakers, but again, not very loud.

Marco

Mesa made an integrated amp called the Tigris which used EL84's and EAR made an excellent amp using just small signal tubes, quite a few of them - can't recall which type. Both got good reviews. Marco is right about finding a good EL34 based amp.

Dynaco (or maybe it was in the days of Dyna Kit) made a small integrated amp with output tubes not much larger than 12AX7. I think it was about 15wpc. The unit was in a case that looked much like a Dyna preamp except that it was deeper. Of course there were lots of amps that used 6V6 tubes, but those are a lot fatter than your pinkie.