Tube or not to tube?

Musicrover, timing is everything. Check the classifieds under tube integrated. I am selling my Audion Sterling. It slays the integrateds you have mentioned, plus I am including tubes to die for. Check it out. It's a great deal. peace, warren

You might also consider a hybrid int. amp. Might be the best of both worlds. I have an aa prima...40wpc...single 6922 in the pre/mosfet amp. Good base slam, sweet mids and highs without loss of detail. I like mine a lot. They come up for sale used on here on occasion for about $600.

In a nutshell...tubes (like some women) are high maintenance, but tubes have a sound character that some find pleasant. You should find out if you like this sound before investing a huge sum of money. Unles you just enjoy tinkering around with electronic stuff, in which case tubes are for you.

Tube amps are great and definitely worth trying out.

A note on your choice of speakers. A number of posters incorrectly consider speaker sensitivity as the most important factor when choosing a speaker for tube amps. This is not the case. With a tube amp you need to select a speaker with a benign impedance curve across the frequency range. A speaker that has a big variance in impedance across its frequency range will give a tube amp a very hard time.

I drive speakers rated at 88db per meter with a 12wpc amp to very loud levels with no hint clipping. They are designed to be used with tube amps and have a very flat impedance curve.

Regards
Paul