Never Owned a Tube Amp and Want Advice

There is a great deal of tube amp experience offered in many of the submissions.  The sheer volume of responses reflects the complexity of the variables involved.  If there really was a simple answer, we would all have had our respective audio epiphanies long ago.  There are MANY very fine tube (and of course solid state) amps in all price points.  The salient variable is, simply put, your own personal taste.  How many times have you heard that, right?  I have been on the quixotic search for 50 years and it has led me everywhere.  Fundamentally, the answer is relative.  At present, I have a McIntosh MC275VI and a Benchmark DAC3 with a pair of Triangle Signature Theta bookshelves and a REL T5i playing classical and jazz via Tidal.  Perfection?  Yes, whatever “perfection” means.  Somewhat of a minimalist system, it combines new and old tech and sounds exquisite.

Life is too short for me buying a conventional tubes amplifier: heat and  distortion from failing tubes with a life that is shorten by each months....I hate heat.... 😁

Perhaps i dramatize a bit....

But go read about the Berning ZOTL tube technology....

No heat at all....

Super extended tube life... Like more than 10 years of use each day....

NO negative reviews at all, all glowing reviews....

For the low price a steal..... It is what they say....I never  try one but it is what i will buy eyes closed....

At least read about ZOTL.....This is my goal with this post.....Read about it....

Berning is a physicist that reinvented tube use in audio.... It is not a frequent event....


Good luck....

Man if I was new to tubes, this thread would leave me confused and wondering where to go.

Forget the numbers for a bit. Just go and listen to a few tube amps in your budget range and a few slightly higher in price. Listen to a range of tube types - EL34’s, 6500/KT88, and SET amps such as 300b tubes. You may find you prefer the sound of specific tube types, although newer amps seem to blur the line between how specific tubes should “sound”.

Power is important but it shouldn’t dictate your decision, it’s just a factor. I’ve successfully run low powered SET amps with less efficient speakers, and I’ve had higher powered amps struggle to sound good with super efficient speakers. Try out with your speakers and read forums to see what has worked well with other owners who use your speakers.

A pragmatic factor with tube amps is the number and cost of the tubes. You’ll be tempted to try different tubes which do sound different, and that is far more costly on a 300b amp than with an EL34 amp, and costly on amps that use a lot of tubes or esoteric, NOS tubes. I try to avoid amps that use tubes I can’t easily source online.
I currently use a 300b 10wpc SET amp (Woo WA5) to drive Devore Nines, which are tube friendly. The same amp did well with ProAc Super Tablettes which shouldn’t be as friendly. I’ve owned more powerful EL34 amps (the mighty AirTight ATM3 mono amps) and will shortly own a Leben CS600x, which is 30ish watts. I’ve had failures with well lauded amps (the WAVAC being an example that didn’t work for me) and pleasant surprises with amps that were not well known (remember the Antique Sound Labs)?

There are few rules that seem to be absolute with tubes, other than avoiding pairing with speakers that are low impedance (and not running unless you have speakers connected as was mentioned). Tube amps are fun, wonderful creatures that will delight you, and if you choose well, will encourage you to try different tubes and enjoy. Biasing is not hard with most amps - a ten dollar multimeter and a screw driver is all you need in most cases, and most newer amps use auto bias.

My favorite reasonably priced tube amps (may mean buying used) of those I’ve heard, and which mate with a decent range of speakers, include:

VAC Avatar SE
Leben CS600 series
Line Magnetic amps
Audio Research VT60
VTL amps (newer)

Yes, whatever “perfection” means. Somewhat of a minimalist system, it combines new and old tech and sounds exquisite

that’s is key, it has to work for you @roadsterluver

Life is too short for me buying a conventional tubes amplifier: heat and distortion from failing tubes with a life that is shorten by each months....I hate heat.... 😁

Perhaps i dramatize a bit....

Very dramatic :),

• agree that life is too short
• agree with the hate of heat (I live in South Florida)
• Heat from tubes, it depends on which amplifier design you get, I have Atmasphere’s and the Russian tubes biased in whichever way Ralph does it it is very good even for South Florida standards, let me put it this way, I feel more heat coming from 2x 6C33C on a SET amp than from 28x 6AS7G from my Atmasphere amps, subjectively
• What distortion? if the tube amp is well designed there is less distortion even at high SPL than with other amps including SS (I am referring to the OTLs here not every tube amp)
  
• Shortened life? doesn’t the components on SS amps have shortened life too? don’t we too? let me make a case, true you can expect the tubes on my specific amp to fail or degrade in 10 years, the caps will degrade the same way (possibly more). aren’t we using tubes from the 30’s and 40’s sometimes? shortened life is very relative as a term
• I have heard the latest ZOTL at the South Florida audio show (wasn’t the last audio show on earth?) it was good but subjectively I prefer my Atmasphere OTL’s,
  

I respect your comments @mahgister of course, I just differ a little with some of them. Oh an I know you are not making a case for SS vs Tubes.

I am not affiliated with Atmasphere in any way, as a matter of fact I have tried other amps because I was using my OTLs as a reference and I was convinced these would be bettered by other amps (tube and SS) and it turned out to be a complex matter to beat that reference, I have heard at shows (Axpona, RMAF, South Florida) all sorts of amps, including the super expensive ones (ARC, Pass and such), I guess for my taste and my liking OTL provides that magic.

Good post @davehg I concur. Your post reminded me of

• VAC, the Statement 452 I did not like (i think it was paired with ML) could have been the pairing, not that I can afford the amp anyway, that is (was) the fun of audio shows
• Airtight amps, it reminded me these sounded very good, I was much impressed with it, could have been good pairing as well.