Quandary

It is important to note, the preferences we all have (at least those that know what their preferences are) why tubes or solid state is the right direction to take (speaking about power amplifiers only). Tube power amps do not do it for me. Them the facts. Anyone familiar with and have a preference for tubes amps, and very specific tube amps as larryi above, definitely does not listen to music the way I do, nor have the same expectations, wants and desires as I do. I am sure we listen to different music as well. Right or wrong? There is none. Not with the varied tastes we all have when listening. For larryi, he has found his comfort place/happy place, and I am extremely happy for him, and the many listeners he interacts with. I have found my comfort place and my happy place, and this is all that matters. I have stated over and over and over again, ad nauseum, that each of us are individuals, and we like what we like. Musicianship, composition and artistic expression are what I listen to, first and foremost. Yes, these are sounds. Our recordings have many sounds, so enjoy those sounds in your preferred order, through your preferred system. Enjoy! MrD.

BTW, ditto from larryi's point of view.

Tube gear, in particular power amplifiers, vary much more in their sound than do solid state amps.  It is not easy to characterize tube amp sound and know tube amp ‘sound” from just a few examples—Audio Research sounds radically different from Audio Note.  Also tube amps require much more care in matching requirements of the speakers.  In that sense, good solid state is “safer” in terms of avoiding incompatibility.  I find Pass Labs to be decent solid state stuff; although much more particular in terms of speaker matching, Pass Labs’ other brand-First Watt—is even better sounding to me.

I went about halfway down into the comments, which go all over the place, and just jumped right to this. I’m glad to see you canceled the demo because though Pass amps are generally fantastic and I’m fairly sure you’ll like it over the Benchmark- you can demo any amp you want anytime you want and still get something that sounds terrific with your speakers. Do it in your time and in a deal that makes sense. I’m a guy who has no problem paying a restocking fee for an audition. You can pay restocking fees all over the internet and they won’t be $300.

And like everyone else, I’d never do business with a schmuck who makes such an ill intentioned offer- $300 to bring you a piece of equipment he wants to sell. That’s hillbilly sht. I’m from Brooklyn- I worked for the best goniffs in the business, most of them had a lot more class than that.