Many good comments above. Your dealer should really let you borrow a tube amp and try it at home. If he doesn't, lose some respect for him.
I have played this game for about 10 years. I have owned all tube systems (Sonic Frontiers), hybrid systems (VAC linestage and SS Muse amp), and all SS systems (my current system is all McIntosh).
In my experience, tubes can deliver a sound that is genuinely invovling and engaing to the senses. But they require a little work. The "little work" I speak of is occassional biasing and replacement every couple of years. Biasing (for my SF tube amp) needed to happen once a month (it took me about 10 minutes). Replacement happened once every two years (approximately), and cost about $500 (that 's for 10 tubes in my SF Power-1 and 6 tubes in my SF Line-2). My tube gear never broke down, and even when I had tube trouble once, I just needed to replace it - no collateral damage in good tube gear usually.
Bottom line for me was, "temperment". I just did not have the temperment for tubes. I always forgot to bias, and I did not like the $500 replacement cost. I also could not live with the idea that I might lose a tube, and be out of sound until I had new tubes sent to me. Many people do not consider these sorts of things problematic. They should own and enjoy tubes. For me, I just did not enjoy the interaction with the equipment in that way, and am just more comfortable with SS.
Ask yourself, how much interaction do you want with your gear? Do you want to have to keep it up monthly and sink a little into it every 18-24 months (kind of like a car), or do you want to turn it on and off and pretty much not think about it? What is your temperment?
Good Luck,
I have played this game for about 10 years. I have owned all tube systems (Sonic Frontiers), hybrid systems (VAC linestage and SS Muse amp), and all SS systems (my current system is all McIntosh).
In my experience, tubes can deliver a sound that is genuinely invovling and engaing to the senses. But they require a little work. The "little work" I speak of is occassional biasing and replacement every couple of years. Biasing (for my SF tube amp) needed to happen once a month (it took me about 10 minutes). Replacement happened once every two years (approximately), and cost about $500 (that 's for 10 tubes in my SF Power-1 and 6 tubes in my SF Line-2). My tube gear never broke down, and even when I had tube trouble once, I just needed to replace it - no collateral damage in good tube gear usually.
Bottom line for me was, "temperment". I just did not have the temperment for tubes. I always forgot to bias, and I did not like the $500 replacement cost. I also could not live with the idea that I might lose a tube, and be out of sound until I had new tubes sent to me. Many people do not consider these sorts of things problematic. They should own and enjoy tubes. For me, I just did not enjoy the interaction with the equipment in that way, and am just more comfortable with SS.
Ask yourself, how much interaction do you want with your gear? Do you want to have to keep it up monthly and sink a little into it every 18-24 months (kind of like a car), or do you want to turn it on and off and pretty much not think about it? What is your temperment?
Good Luck,