Tubes?

Tube watts are not greater than S.S. watts to say so is simply stupid. If you think you hear more volume with a tube amp it is simply distortion or clipping. 

S.S. and tube amp designs each have a series of advantages. Much of which amp will be appropriate is determined by the specifications of your speaker. Efficiency is only 1 pertinent specification. 

Regarding Roger Sanders and his opinions about anything audio related will be completely skewed by his devotion to ESPs. 

I agree with leftears, some of the posters on this forum give the worst advice and seem to take every opportunity to complicate what should be relatively simple issues. 

My advice is to avoid those posters who tell you to sell a product that you like and then give you a specific manufacturer whose product you should buy. 

I see no disadvantages to gear that uses small signal tubes like DACs, preamps, etc. There are numerous reasons why S.S. amps deserve serious consideration in certain circumstances.

@audition__audio   +1

It is ridiculously stupid to suggest that tube watts are greater than SS watts.  Tube amps sound "better" however to me and it's excatly about the even order harmonics, soft clipping,  and the fact tubes have more linear transfer functions than transistors, so tube amplifiers usually need and use much less negative feedback.

Who makes this stuff up about tube watts being greater than SS watts???  lol  Maybe it's how we define greater.....in euphonics.

Glass watts versus sand watts?
About as different in weight as a ton of feathers and a ton of iron.

I don’t know how ridiculous or stupid it is. But a WATT is WATT.
I guess the topic would be are all WATTs created equal?

I don’t know, are they? I (ME) think they are...

A Watt is a Watt! I Recon...

Crap, I confused myself, It's not fair. I'm still under the mind control of my buddy Sam.
That dog gone embedded message he keep sending, keeps me coming back for more
crazy talk. Maybe outer space WATTS are different... Just sayin'  :-)

Regards

hopefully the op can sort through another typical a-gon thread, lots of pretty good advice, some heavy handedness in how it is delivered, some getting caught up with semantics and missing the point

i suggest op take away the following:

1 - you have definitely chosen pretty inefficient, relatively hard to drive speakers - if you like them and will run with them, you will need to match your amplifier carefully, most likely a beefy solid state unit to deliver alot of power/current to do the job well esp. if you like to play pretty loud

2 - most tube amps will struggle with driving your speakers, in absolute volume and in bass control -- tube amps just can’t match ss equivalents in bass control and slam, you need to go to megabuck tube amps to get very good bass with your speakers

3 - tube pre feeding ss power amp likely the best solution if you want some tube dimensionality and sweetness to the sound, that is IF you value that

4 - tube watts vs ss watts and the semantics associated with that line of discussion is pretty much irrelevant