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What do you see as the downside of tubes?

I have decided on getting a tube amp and it will be the integrated Mastersound 300B driving a pair of Living Voice Avatars, so at least that decision has been taken.

My main question is what you see as downsides of having a tube amp. As I've decided on getting an integrated tube it's really about what the downsides are I might want to know about beforehand.

The ones I'm aware are the following.

-The tubes need to be replaced and in the case of a 300B this will be somewhat costly.

-Bias is another issue but I'm not sure how big an issue. Do you plug in your meter every so often or just when you roll tubes or replace a dead one? The meter as such isn't gonna be a big issue as I don't think it's that expensive.

-Heat won't be a big issue as we have no kids nor a nosy dog that could get burned. Hope my electricity bill isn't gonna go through the roof, but then again, I can't quite imagine that.

I'd appreciate if you could add whatever your experiences are regarding this question are as I'd like to know more before I buy it.

Thanks
krauti
ejlif's avatar
ejlif
1,366 posts
 
One downside that has not been mentioned and for me is the biggest reason not to own tubes is having to power the system up and down all the time so that you don't use up the tube life not listening. I like my system on and ready to go all the time. I found when I had tubes sometimes I wouldn't bother playing music if I only had 15 minutes or so. It just wasn't worth the hassle. Another thing that bugged me was a few different tube pieces I had could take up to 90 seconds to be ready to play. I had a CJ preamp and I would turn it on and then stand there until it clicked on and then adjust the volume so I could listen.

I think tubes sound great but so does solid state. Some people like the ritual of turning on the tubes and the fuss I'm sure.
markwatkiss
508 posts
 
Tbadder,"3 out of 4 tube amps don't work" That's God telling you you have too much money.
rodman99999
6,038 posts
 
What Semi said, times 2
chriswiegand
1 posts
 
My tube amp (Pacific Creek E34i - 45 Watt PP) has difficulty sourcing a lot of current needed to drive speakers with low impedance in the lower registers. I've found this to be the case with my Vandersteen 2s. However, in the case of my Monitor Audio Silver RS6s, they are high enough efficiency and don't have such an impedance dip at low frequency to cause a lack of dynamics and transient response in the low end.
nrenter's avatar
nrenter
765 posts
 
I'll quote from my virtual system:

...I wanted to go back to solid state. I've had tubes for years and loved them. I mean really loved them. However, there are compromises I'm willing to make because 1) I want something I can leave on 24x7, 2) I need something that doesn't generate as much heat, 3) I don't want to continuously wonder if a NOS set of Pope 6SN7s sound better than my NOS RCAs or if my 12BZ7s are aging and need to be replaced, and 4) I want hardware that doesn't require as much real estate.
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