My first Tube Amplifier

My first bit of tube gear was a AR SP10  that was gifted to me by one of my very kind and generous clients. I had no idea just how good it was, but when he offered it to me as "an old preamp that he had in his basement" I graciously accepted. It cam with lots of old tubes which were all "graded" on a hand written spread sheet no less. It sounded wonderful in my system and the phono section was amazing, albeit a little bit noisier than the SS unit that I was also using.

The other tubed amp that I have is a "refurbished" Fisher 100b that belonged to my late father. It was in the family for decades until it finally came back to me. I was a little skeptical about using it in my main system due to the relatively low output, but I decided to give it a try while I was between amps. The results were absolutely stunning to say the least. While not the last word in the area of bass and upper frequency extension, the music it made was just that, music. While I am not using it at the moment, it still sits atop my main rack as a reminder of dad's appreciation for music that I am blessed to have inherited. 

HealthKit  W5M which I built with my father in the late 1950’s.  Haven’t used these in years, but I still have several of these units in my basement.  After that Sherwood tube intergrated and then several different solid state units, mostly Heathkit and Carver. All still in the basement.

In the 1990’s  I purchased my current Plinius 8150 which I moved to my mountain home when I purchased my Plinius 9200.  

Absolutely no issues with either Plinius since purchase.  Much warmer then all my previous Solid state amps. Very happy with both these rock solid integrated amps.

I do not miss my tube amps or replacing burned out tubes at all.  Solid state technology has improved significantly since I built my first Heathkit transistor radio.

Cary 300 SE Signature mono blocks. Wish I never sold them.

@blindjim 

It is interesting to go through your experience.

Tube amp has some kind of unique magic.

But it also requires careful system matching.

I am having lot of fun with tube rolling.

With Nos tube, the sound change immediately.


Keep you efforts.

first was a  hybrid integrated was a BAT tube pre of 6h30s, my first "real" quality amplifier. the problem was that I was driving Klipsch. The pair of Dali Helicons fixed that, and I could finally see what he BAT could really do.

I sold the BAT after making a pair of 40w push-pull Kt88 monoblocks with the local audio club. Quite good. 

the last tube amp that I sold a few months back was a PrimaLuna HP Dialogue Premium. Great amps! but hot for me. Like the OP, they doubled as a large space heater in my CA weather with no AC, so had to let them go.... in favor of Class D for low heat/energy (energy bills are high in CA). the good thing is that the Class Ds i have were made by a company who mastered tube products beforehand, so their Class D amps are voiced toward tube sound.