The basic deal is about half the tube watts vs SS watts for control/Clipping on the speakers. If your speakers Clip at 100w with a strong SS amp(not cheezy piece), you can figure clipping at about the same output with a 50watt tube amp, or thereabouts.
Meaning you can get away with half the tube watts you normally need with SS before clipping sets in, from my experiences. The reason is that tubes are more forgiving and rounded off at the extremes. SS amps go into hard clipping, and are not forgiving. Not exactly sure how to explain that correctly.
Either way, you can get into more distortion with a tube amp, and not clip/damage the speakers. If you used to use a 100watt amp. I like to think you can get nto a 50watt tube amp and be fine....if your speakers are good with those numbers sensitivity-wise for overall output/volume
Meaning you can get away with half the tube watts you normally need with SS before clipping sets in, from my experiences. The reason is that tubes are more forgiving and rounded off at the extremes. SS amps go into hard clipping, and are not forgiving. Not exactly sure how to explain that correctly.
Either way, you can get into more distortion with a tube amp, and not clip/damage the speakers. If you used to use a 100watt amp. I like to think you can get nto a 50watt tube amp and be fine....if your speakers are good with those numbers sensitivity-wise for overall output/volume