Tube vs solid state (with all apologies)

The immediate plan is to horizontally bi-amp with an Adcom GFA 585 on the low end and the mc2100 on the high end. The Mc is a lot sweeter sounding in bi-wire mode than the Adcom. If that doesn’t balance out, I have the budget for a second 2100 and will go vertical. I don’t at the moment want to spend the bucks on a 275 tube amp.

I’ll be planning for either an mc275 or a tube preamp as a next step.

(oh, and the reQuest panels have been replaced)

@edcyn. 

Holy cow. I have never heard of so many problems with solid state electronic gear. I probably have owned 200 - 300 new (I’m throwing in iPads, iPhones, PCs, as well as audio equipment) electronic devices over the last 30 years and couldn’t come up with that many failures. A Sonic Frontiers CD player transport failed twice (but not the tube components), one iPhone… that is it.

I have never had a piece of audiophile gear fail in over fifty years (Unless you count the Sonic Frontiers Tape Deck… but I would not). No tubed gear problems either. I have a big pile of extra tubes I bought for equipment that I no longer have but never needed.

Wow...what goes on at edcyn's house??

clearly you are the exception. Please let us know the SS amps you had problems with and the tubes that are super reliable, long lasting and maintenance free (for decades without periodic tube replacement).

Hardly an exception. I have an Audionote SE that uses 6550. I have had the same power tubes in it for around 20 years. Before that I had a set a quads. The power tubes where the originals the amp came with - the amps were over 40 years old.

In over 40 years of owning tube amps, I have never ever had to replace a tube that wore out. I have only ever replaced for sound. I have bought a few I didn’t like, a few were noisy, but they arrived like that.

I have heard of a few folks who have had to replace worn out tubes, sure. I have heard of lot more folks who had to replace or repair transistor amps that failed.

@pauly - you definitely are the exception. Everyone I hear from talks about replacing tubes after some cycle time depending on the amp, environment, usage, volume, etc. You must have some super tubes!  Or maybe they are replacing them because of sound degradation and that doesn't bother you.

Not sure since I never owned tubes and don't plan to. SS can deliver just as good SQ, depending on the amp.