How do tube Watts compare to SS Watts?

03-14-07: Eldartford "The sound level that can be produced by a tiny amount of power"

Now that I can agree with ... :-)

after rereading above posts... i'm going further on the limb. fwiw, i think you are gonna 'need' more than 60 wpc of tubes to get 'er done. honestly i think thiels work best with lotsa juice. ss gets it done of course but you want to delve into tubes and being a convert myself i encourage others. never owned thiels but have auditioned them and they can sound kinda listless, yet defined, w/o enuf power. if you could hook them up to tubes and audition i think you would not need any of this contradictory advice. good luck! fwiw, 86 db design is a stretch in $1K 50wpc arena. personally i'd want 100wpc but your listening tastes are unknown to me

I stand corrected. What i mean to say is that on most speakers, SET amps, 300, 845's will not provide the current necessary to produce tension, "slam". I've had KT88's in my JOR and the result was total failure. The amp lost all its "authority". So I also place KT88's in "SET" category, even on a push/pull design. I have not heard the Cayin KT88 yet, that might change my opinion. Point is, some tubes in many designs do not offer the body in MOST speakers that a decent ss amp will offer. Put any SET amp with a Vandersteen and then put a decent ss amp. SET's will not drive the speaker. Tubes can make great music, that is IF you can find the right speaker. As you point out its a combination of the 2. Much easier done with any ss amp, tubes work only with certain speakers.
Please correct if/where I err.

Bartok, the KT 88 (similar to 6550), etc aren't push-pull. They're pentodes. Push pull is an amp circuit config.Cheers

I thank all of your for sharing your opinions! The Theil 2.2s are presently driven by a Conrad-Johnson 80W ss amp with a C-J tube preamp. This is more than adequate for the music and volumes we enjoy. Using the ss W to tube W factor of 0.5, roughly, 40-50W tube might work; 60-75W very likely will work. I'm hoping to get something definitely warm not neutral. (I've always preferred the tone of Fritz Kreilser over that of Jascha Heifitz.) Ilooked into the Jolidas, and they are certainly impressive. But I've noticed that some folks think that they are not particularly warm or "tubey." I can't say and they are not available around here for roadtesting. Given constraints on tone, wattage, and cost, I think I'll nose around for early '60s American amps that have been, at least partly, refurbished. Or...maybe back to the Jolidas. Thanks again. Rascal