Never Owned a Tube Amp and Want Advice


Hi All, 

I have never owned a tube amplifier before and am planning to purchase one with a minimum of 50 watts per channel to mate with 8 ohm 88 dbl speakers.

My hope is experienced audiogoners will share their expertise regarding how to approach this. While I realize listening is the best way to learn about sound and compatibility; I want to learn a better understanding about brands with less maintenance and longer tube life, how to decide between mono or stereo,can a newbie play with bias or is auto biasing a better first choice, etc.

I would also appreciate what to look for in selecting a used tube amp to identify one that might be in need of repair. For example, with solid state depending on the brand, capacitor replacement can be more of a concern. Any advice on what to look out for or ask about with used tube amps would be appreciated.

A big question I have is how to understand the relationship between power tubes like E34's, 120.s, etc. and, I guess the driver? tubes like 12au7's and 12at7's. That  is to ask which is more critical to the overall sound of the amp? FWIW, I routinely tube roll with my preamps.  

I 've read through a number of threads but maybe someone can point me to good ones I may have missed. 

Thanks for listening,

Dsper
dsper
You’ve been given a lot of really great advice.

I’m going to suggest a different direction - why not consider a tube preamp?

That way you get the best of both worlds!

Edit: Oops! Just noticed you had found something. Never mind. 
I have gone with a Pathos Hybrid AMP after trying a Raven Blackhawk with not much luck.

Love my Raven CeLest Towers and the Raven cables.  

Loving the Pathos and Raven combo. 
To be clear, I am talking about "bliss" and "sound" versus "blisss" and "ssound".
I get it. Do you have another source besides CD? If no this could be a digital problem... is it in both channels??
Hi atmasphere,

I need to hook up the turntable and have not done that yet.

Hear it in both channels.

Right now I am listening to a Leopold Stokowski remastered CD and things sound fine; of course, no vocals.

Dsper