I've narrowed it down...

I think tubes do wear out faster when asked to drive more difficult loads

That very well could be. I ended up selling the B+Ws shortly after I got the tube amp, I had gotten the upgrade bug by that point anyway.

Mikrrob, I get it and didn't misread your post, I just disagree. I don't think one should buy speakers for amps. I think one should decide on speakers before choosing amplification.

Mikirob,
Your example is my historical reality! My first high end systems for competely SS gear.Over time I was introduced to tube amps and preferred them by a consideable degree.
Once exposued to the genre of SET amps if was all over,I found them much more natural and closer to what I hear with live music.

I bought a 300b amp built my system around it and it exceeded my high expectations. I enjoy the best music reproduction I`ve ever had(by far). Absolutely either a amplifier or speaker can be the building block for an audio system. I know I`m not the only one who has sucessfully done it this way.
Best Regards,

Unsound, so why don't you give some concrete scientific back-up to that reasoning. In the real-world what I stated is the more likely scenario as to Charles1Dad attests; this is also my real-world scenario. My father and uncles all had great tube systems in their day. Me, I started with SS, was very unhappy, something was always missing, it just wasn't right for me. The more tube systems I heard, the more I understood what I was missing. My parents and several relatives are musicians, I am also, among other things, know what "real" music sounds like. In the professional music world I and most of my colleagues didn't ' select speakers first, we bought the guitars, musical instruments we liked, then the Marshals, Vox, etc.

How and why should a person say, oh, I must, it's mandatory to go speaker first? Say you inherit an amp. You don't take it because you don't have your ideal speakers? When I got my first SET amp I had big inefficient speakers that I had to change. No big deal, no harder to do that than doing it the other way around.

How and why do you believe this theory of yours?

I don`t want this to disintergrate into another tube vs SS (again, sigh)I freely admit amp'or' speaker first appraoch can work out well.

When it comes specifically to SET amplifiers you 'most' often will begin with the amp you like and just find a good efficient-easy load speaker to match.Fortunately on the current market there are many to choose from.