Will a tube setup sound good for all music ?

I have yet to see a transistor amp that can play bass as well as a good tube amp. They don't seem to go as deep or have as much impact as tubes. Of course, I am using a speaker that is tube friendly (and has 20Hz bandwidth).

I listen to all sorts of music. If you have a good amp and speaker, the type of music is really unimportant- it should play Wagner as well as Massive Attack, Bill Evans, or Fields of Nephilim. The idea that a speaker or amp is best at one type of music is really a myth. Both are processing a signal and don't really care what the signal is.

So if you are looking into tubes, the main thing is to have a revealing speaker with as much bandwidth as you can afford that is also **easy to drive**. Tube power is expensive so its usually best served if the speaker is moderate (91 db) to high (+99 db) efficiency, with an impedance of 8 ohms or more, particularly in the bass region. Otherwise if you go with lower efficiency *and/or* low impedance in the bass, it will be like running a Porsche with really cheap tires- you will never realize the amp's capability.

Pay attention to Atmasphere's reply;spot on as well as the others above.

My experience with tube amps mirrors Atmasphere's, and this was under less than ideal conditions: various mid-powered (~30-45 watts) amps with mid-low efficiency (~87-89db) speakers. I listen to a variety of music including electronic/trance so bass response is particularly important to me. I tried replacing my amps with a few high-powered solid state amps (120-200 watts) and contrary to what many believe the bass impact and definition suffered. Now this is probably not true in every situation but if you want to try tube amps the guidelines in Atmasphere's post is a good place to start.