I'm going to buy my first tube amp. I need honest blunt opinions

Life is short, a speaker change is hard when you like the sound of your beloved speakers. I know all too well, and need a speaker change in order to do tubes right. then I will get a tube preamp. I have  a great sounding older mosfet SS amp 

Another vote for Quicksilver. The V4 monoblocs are incredible for the price.

Buy a Ayon   They are far better built , and micro processor controlled , when a tube goes out a led comes on and you just replace that one tube , 

it monitors each power tube, 

regular amplifiers all tubes are just averaged. So many more disasters possible 

blown transformer,resistors . I had a canary and had it rebuilt ,not that great  

transformers and chokes are the major component  in tube amps 

Ayon use a machined aluminum case , not cheap sheet metal like the others ,

plus they use teflon Copper tube sockets ,which sonicly make a big difference vs the cheap tinned brass , they use Top quality Lundahl  transformers and chokes ,

I bought two of their products , and yes iowned the above products , Jadis is agood product but doesnot have all the safety features Ayon has.

As you may know tubes have a wonderful warm sound and some have managed to combine the strengths of both sold state and tubes.  I have a pair of Wolcott presence 220 monoblocks considering parting with that combine the benefits of both.  Hate to give them up though.  They have autobiasing which is a great feature to look for if you’re new to tubes.  The amps have recently been completely been retubed and have EL 34 mullard (16) power tubes.  I would consider parting with them for $4900. 
 

good luck 

My thoughts are you will get a better result setting your system up for near field listening, your speakers seem very wide apart. It’s free to try so why not give it a shot. Mapleshade Audio has some good tips for this on their site. As for bass standing waves in that room, I don’t think it should be a problem as there isn’t much bass energy from those speakers. Move the speakers closer, move your chair into a spot making a triangle between your speakers and your chair, play with toe in and you will get way better benefit than changing your amp and again it’s free!!

You must have thought it 3 times...

Good karma to you @coltrane1 

Good plan on getting new speakers.  My advice would be to go for the highest dB you are able and invest in a low powered SET Amp...2A3 tubes are wonderful...

There are very well established Valve users having contributed.

I will post a Copy/Paste of a post I made in a thread recently.

_____________________________________________________________

" I have a System using Valves in Pre and Power Amp's for many years.
I also have other devices with Valves.
I was given advice in my earliest days, to not leave a device using Valves unattended for more than a short period of time.
This is a discipline I have maintained, and to date have not had a incident that would be of a concern, so have been quite fortunate.
I would not be the one responsible for bringing Valves into a Newbies System, this this would have to be the system owners choice.
I would definitely encourage the system owner to learn about Valves pro's/cons prior to making a decision. 

My second system is a design to be used to play Music to fill the house with sound and not really need to be sat in front of.
For this reason Valves are not even being considered in the set up. "

Check out VAC.

There is no app that allows amps to match up to speakers, someone would have to have extensive knowledge of the crossovers, voice coil, drivers, internal cables, internal components of the speaker and the same type of knowledge of the Amp. 

Tube amps are a pain they are like that beautiful girl in high school that you can't stay away from even though you know better. 

I have a Cary Audio Rocket 88 no intention of selling it.  If you are new to tubes, BE CERTAIN to test your output tubes regularly.  ALL of my problems with tube amps were because I didn't test regularly.  If you don't want to test, then buy new output tubes yearly. Sorry, there is no easy way out with vacuum tubes.

Definitely bring it all CLOSE IN. You won’t be happy until… small 7’ triangle. We all have great visions of people coming over to our house and showing off what we have in relation to sound but 99% of the time it’s gonna be you and your system by yourselves. If you have a spouse or partner Great. Other than that it’s intimate and it’s low volume to really appreciate, concentrated, listening, and to break down what your speakers are offering. Acoustics are terrible and I once had a large room like yours with 20 foot ceilings, and it sounded like I was in the gymnasium.

The updated Dynaco ST-70 is a wonderful amp and a total bargain at its price. This is a design that has sold over 350,000 amps of the the past several decades. Tube rectification, better power supply than the original, and improved tube choices for the preamp and driver functions improved the amp even more. Lots of power (35W) in its ultra-linear mode (which is how these transformers were wound) so you should be able to drive most speakers. I owned this amp and was very happy with it, as it compared favorably to my Decware Torii (another EL34 amp.) As a bonus, the tubes this amp uses are affordable ('m a former 300B amp owner!)

I don’t know why you don’t consider an OTL? Far superior transparency. I have NYAL Futtermans, but as they are rarer than rocking horse poop, the easier way to go would be the Atma-Spheres, which I understand are just as good.

mambacfa, I still have a pair of Dyna MKIIIs, modified by Dahong Setoo. I may give them to Jon Specter to work on, as while Dahong’s mod was more stable, they lost a little something.

I apologise in advance as I’m drifting slightly.  My blunt response is to stay away from tubes and rather try PASS LABS . 

I have the Primaluna EVO 400 amp but you should look at this listing of Rogue Audio M-180 mono blocks I have for sale... they are much better than the Primaluna.  I just need to sell the Rogues to raise some funds for some new equipment.  They sound incredible and have 180W of power! 

Rogue Audio M-180 Dark Special Edition Mon... For Sale | Audiogon

My blunt response is: I have owned cutting edge high level Pass amps for nearly 40 years… switch to tubes… I am an Audio research fan… used works.

I'm in agreement with soix, atmosphere and others. With the Monitor Gold 300s, for sure, it wouldn't be good to match with a SET amp or even a low to mid powered ultra-linear tube amp

If looking for the romance, and warmth of tubes (as nice of a pre that the Benchmark is) you might consider going to a tubed pre matched with a smooth 100W+ SS power amp.

While the tubes in a pre. tend to hold up and last a long time even when driving 4 ohm speakers, the tubes in mid to low powered power amps, not so well. 

I loved the sound of of tubes with my Maggies, but have gone through two sets of KT-120 tubes in the past 2 years, not to mention the trouble of replacing fuses and resistors.

I went back to my old reliable Audible Illusions tubed pre, driving a 200/400 watt SS power amp and am most happy.