2. amps-preamps
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Reliability of tubes/ Belles 150A vs Jolida 801A?

I'm nearly at the end of my upgrade quest. I'd pretty much decided to buy a Belles 150A Hotrod and Soloist preamp but my dealer is now suggesting I consider the Jolida 801A integrated instead to mate with Opera Consonance 120 linear cd player and Silverline 17.5 monitors.I've owned numerous tube guitar amps in the past and while I loved the sound, I haven't loved dragging them into the shop at regular intervals for maintainence. Are tubed audio amps pretty much trouble-free or do they share guitar amps high-maintanence needs? Thanks!
stuartk
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
By all means listen and let your ears decide.
But as to the question concerning reliability, if you followed the threads in this forum and used them as a reference, the answer is that tube amps are less reliable. There are consistently more questions concerning problems with faulty tube amps than with ss amps. I haven't actually kept track so it's only my impression.
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jaybo
4,478 posts
 
the belles pair
stuartk OP
2,980 posts
 
OK, this has been helpful. I HAVE lived through failing tubes with guitar amps. However, having grown up listening to music played through tube amps, that's the sound my ears want to hear-- it's what they expect and what they judge as "desirable". However, this isn't the case with audio. And it's not important to me whether what goes wrong is in the amp or in the tube-- I don't want to have to screw around with figuring out which it might be to begin with! I just want to turn it on and focus on the music. Tvad, you hit the nail on the head re: "comfort level". I suspect the truth is that I lack the patience to deal with tubes, period, when it comes to music listening.
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