I haven't found a "downside" to tubes. My love for the sound of the real thing, and the frequency at which I get to hear it, demands that I get as close to it as possible at home. Ditto the cost of the best NOS tubes. My view of their cost is directly related to my love of music. Further: Tube rolling is an inexpensive/easy way for a person to give the sound of his/her system a gentle nudge in a particular direction. A flexible, purely subjective method of adjustment available, relative to the listener's tastes. Regardless of what aural preferences one may have: rolling a couple tubes can take one from merely, "OK" to Audio Nirvana. Try that with your SS system.
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
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
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- 181 posts total
- 181 posts total