Tube Amp. Power ratings

I've seen 20 year old amps running on original tubes. Heck, I've seen 40 year old tube amps running on the original tubes. In any case, I wouldn't worry too much about tube costs as a miantenance issue, but if you're coming from the SS camp, it should be a consideration.

I've seen sytems with SS pre's and tube amps that were great. That being said, if you like tubes you will likely end up with a tube pre and tube amps as they have similar attributes. Tube pre with SS amps is both popular and helps with tougher speaker loads while adding some tube magic.

In any case, if you buy used to try, you can almost always get the same money back out that you have into the piece.

My persoanl preference is to have tubes everywhere, but also remember not all tube amps sound the same and some amp/speaker combinations will be a problem as mentioned earlier. But oh, the fun of the journey!

And, of course you can listen in the dark and enjoy the
tube glow.

RFG

OTLs are an exception to the rule being designed for 8 ohms or greater. These amps are virtually useless w/ most 4 ohm spkrs of which there are many more on the mkt than 14/16 ohm spkrs.

Whether tube amps reveal more detail is highly debatable. Most white papers need to be carefully analyzed as the mfg. isn't always objective.

given a reasonable speaker match, to my ears push-pull tube amps sound much more powerful than ss of the same ratings, partly because the distortion artifacts from tubes are more benign than from ss. I moved to tubes when I realized I had lost interest in listenting to music, and identified part of the issue as the somewhat irritating sound produced by humanly affordable ss (digital was the other factor). The reviewers seem to think that extremely expensive ss amps (eg Boulder) do not suffer in comparison to tubes, but that is academic to many of us. Single ended triod amps are another category entirely, and sound more lifelike in the midrange than anything else, but require extremely efficient speakers without low impedence dips and most suffer in the highs and lows compared to other designs.

>>OTLs are an exception to the rule being designed for 8 ohms or greater<<

Exception or not, it invalidates your initial assertion.

Furthermore, there are OTL amps that handle 4 ohm loads with ease.

Sorry.