The ups and downs of tube vs. SS...

I love my MC240 amp.  It does sound better, especially playing piano music.  It is paired with APT Holman preamp, and AR90 speakers.  Paid $50 for the AR90s, had to replace the surrounds.
I also have 3 sets of Adcom amps/preamps, with various speakers, (KLH, Pioneer) and they sound just fine to me.
I pretty much leave them all on all the time, even when there is no music playing, and have not replaced any tubes in the Mac in the year or 2 that I have had it.  Before I bought the Mac, the seller had it checked out by a specialist shop.
I am content, but seem to have an endless curiosity about speakers.  I bought some Klipsch KG4 speakers, wanted to try out those horns, liked them at first, but got weary of them pretty quickly, will sell them when I get around to it. Found out that I prefer the old KLH and even the old Pioneers, both pairs cost less than $100.
I use cheap thick speaker wire.
My source is a big external hard drive on my desk top computer.
I download torrents from P2P sites, all HD (eg flac), never bother with MP3, so it's all free.
I concede that vinyl might sound better, but I cannot be bothered trying to keep vinyl clean.  I have a dog, and I live in the country, and there is lots of dust in my environment.  Clean hard drive sounds better than dirty vinyl.
Also I love the convenience of finding/selecting on the computer.
Makes it easy to "stack" some music when I go the bed.  Or choose a song that I am trying to learn, and be able to have it repeat without putting my guitar down.  Or copy onto a cd to play in the car.

@jtweed , thanks a bunch for starting this ’The ups and downs of tube vs. SS...’ discussion because I never would have found out or known anything about the Fisher 500C integrated all tube receiver.

@sunrayjack12and @geoffkait, ditto for bringing up in this discussion this little known jewel to me, the Fisher 500C tube integrated all tube receiver. After doing some research I found that this receiver is one of or if not the best value of integrated all tube receiver ever made!

I started my research here: STEVE HOFFMAN music forum - ’FISHER all-tube receivers from 1961-66 are cheap and sound wonderful!’ 2010.

I then stumbled across the Analog Engineering Associates website and found they restore customers Fisher integrated all tube receivers and sell restored Fisher integrated all tube receivers for as little as $1000. Please see here: http://aeaaudio.com/product/fisher-500c-gold-restoration-sold/.

Coincidently, today I will be picking up a SVS PB12 Plus/2 subwoofer with the 12.3 speaker upgrades specifically for its ability to be connected to vintage receivers.

I sure am glad I held on to my vintage Henry Kloss KLH Model Seventeen’s. I will be cleaning out my closet of all my 30 - 45 watt analog, solid state, and vintage Pioneer, Technics, Scott, and Cambridge receivers, turntables, speakers and whatever else I have around the house and selling those items just so I can one day buy me a Fisher integrated all tube receiver.

Tube are nice , "But" unreliable ,  The bias bad tubes go wrong all the time . I can not make year without a problem my amp is in the shop know. Got a year out of it 1st week there was problem I fix it my self  after a year I had to send it out . They do sound nice . There are some very good SS out there  "BIG BUCKS" Best bet intergrated amp with tube preamp easy to replace and the tubes are 10 bucks

@passet02 With all due respect that sounds like an issue with your amp itself not tubes. In my opinion a well built, point to point wired tube amp is harder to break and easier to fix and more prone to long term reliability. Sure there is a certainly level of interaction with your gear you don't get with SS but to me that's the fun part.

My favorite is a Fisher 500C unrestored.

That won't last long if the filter capacitors don't get replaced. As they fail, they tend to take the power transformer with them. It can get pretty ugly as the transformer might leak nastiness when it gets really hot.

So get the caps replaced- and the amp will sound even better.