Tube Amps Watts vs SS amp

I am driving 85 dB sensitivity speakers with 200 WPC of pure analogue tube power using 8 KT150s. I can drive these to 98dBA spl with little effort and NO clipping and more to go. It sounds better than the comparable powered SS amp that I replaced.


Rollin

It's most likely been already covered but a watt is a watt whether it is sand or glass. All other factors will influence how amps work in their installations but a Watt is the same no matter where it comes from.

It is the clipping that is important. Glass clips softly, sand hard.

May want to consider a solid state amplifier with a little more ‘meat on the bones’ to emulate (75% or so) tube sound but maintain the high damping factor and needed power. Consider used GamuT D200 or possibly older Clayton Audio amplifier. Both amps are built to last.

As others have said, tube amps provide a more usable power band than most solid state amps.  I've been in audio for over 40 years, and have listened to countless amps, and of this I have no doubt.  Another point on most tube amps is that the output transformers allow these amps to deal with complex loads quite well.  Sonically, I have always found tube amps to be less fatiguing in the mids and highs.  

That said, the tradeoff is the low end.  AR9s, even with a massive tube amp, will be soft in the bottom end.  This is the biggest tradeoff in my view.  That, and the dynamic compression that occurs at higher volume on tube amps, will lead to a choice.  If recreating the energy of a concert, with gut punching bass is what you're looking for, best in class solid state is hard to beat.