Where do the tubes go?

Friend

There is descent tube equipment, and then there is spectacular tube equipment. The first thing to do is find a reputable dealer in your area and audition what they carry. I can tell you that there are two main types of Output Tubes - Triode and Pentode. About 80% of all dealers carry Pentode Amplifiers. Other than how the tube is designed - the difference is Triode Amplifiers typically output between 1.5 and 25 WPC whereas Pentode Amplifiers usually start at 40 WPC and can go up into the hundreds of WPC.

The difference in sound in my opinion is that Triodes sound best but due to their low output have less loudspeaker choice. Coming from solid-state it would probably be best for you to look at Pentode Amplification. Pentode can sound great. Just stick with Audio Research, Conrad Johnson, VTL, and the other big companies that have been doing it for a long time.

As far as going all tube equipment - it would be a win-win as long as you stick with companies again that know what they're doing. The music just sounds more natural and real. Of course, I cannot cover everything in a post, so first things first - go audition.

Revisiting this thread after a couple of days what jumps out at me is how passionate we tube lovers are about our music reproduction.Because tubed equipment "gets" the soul of the music IMO.Do the diehard ss folks gush like we do?Aceofhearts,go out and audition if possible and see if you feel it!Best of luck on your journey.

Studio 1,
You raise some good points for the OP as far as distinguishing in general pentode vs triode tube amplifier options. I like many who ventured from SS amplifiers to tube amps went the route of pentode initially, (triodes came later). These are predominantly push pull and often class AB configuration. This genre offers much flexibility in price, power and many brands and models and can provide very good sound quality when executed well.

Triode specifically directly heated triode (DHT) is another niche, examples are 300b, 2A3, 45, 211, 845 etc. These are used often as SET(class A by default) but also class A push pull. These amplifiers will as a rule have lower power output but offer a different sonic presentation that some will find very natural and life like. Both categories of tube amps have their admirers. Speaker selection is a critical aspect when considering a given amplifier.

Aceofhearts, I'd recommend that you do some reading on DHT and pentode tubes and certainly listening to these different types of tube amplifiers to help determine which type will please you the most.
Charles,

No stereo component functions alone, or at its best with just any others, so always best to consider the key component inter dependencies, especially when dealing with SS versus tube based gear.

Assuming you have a good system already, and are looking to add another built around tubes, I would set a budget for the new system that is built around tube amplification of some sort and go from there.

How that might best play out would then be determined by what your goals are for the system sound wise. Room size, types of music listened to, volume to be listened at, all the usual factors should be considered up front.

If you are just looking to add some tubes into an existing system, a tube source like tube DAC is the most practical place to start. Tube rolling in a tube DAC will provide opportunity to experiment easily with different tubes to tweak the sound and learn initially.

What speakers do you have currently? That would be a big factor in determining whether a change to a tube amp or integrated is a good investment alone.

A tube pre-amp is another option, but I would consider input impedance specs of whatever power amp was to be used with it first before doing that, and only if a analog pre-amp is needed, ie in case of both digital and analog (like phono) inputs. 30Kohm power amp input impedance or higher is probably a safe bet for good performance with most tube pre-amps.

No right or wrong way to start. Just some more likely to work out better sooner rather than later if you always consider the big picture before making a move.

Aceofhearts what does your system look like now and are you going to replace your speakers?