Looking to get into tubes?

I'm 58, started with tubes at age 16, went SS later but was never really happy. Now I have tubes again and I love them. I think the Rogue Cronus is a good suggestion and so is the Audio Space AS-3i. Both unfortunately near the top end of your budget if you can find them used.

Another good brand which was marketed for a while here in Canada is Passion Audio. The i-11 model is a bit better-sounding than the i-10 and should still be close to the low end of your budget. These amps were produced by Antique Sound Labs and voilà, that's another brand you might consider and a little easier to find.

Remember the output transformer is the key to sound quality in a tube amp. I recommend the Audio Space and Passion units for that reason. I have heard the Cronus briefly at a show and liked it but I didn't get to ask about it.

To me there's no point arguing about the relative sonic merits of tube and solid state. Class A solid state is an interesting option to me, I have heard ones I liked, but I have not heard any that I would willingly give up my tubes for. Which brings me to my point. The only way to decide the SS vs. tube question for yourself is to listen to them, and of course that's been said many many times.

I think there _will_ be a pertinent debate appearing more and more strongly in the future, and that's low power designs vs. the classics, whether tube or SS.

A set of driver ( small-signal ) tubes might last you a year if you left your amp on all the time ( I don't ). Turning off and on will reduce tube life somewhat but if, like me, you have the amp on about 4 hours a day, four days a week, the tubes will last a lot longer than a year.

Output tubes ( power tubes--the big ones ) generally last about a third of the lifetime of the smaller driver tubes.

A new output tube might cost from $15 to $25. A new driver tube might cost about the same. NOS tubes ( new old stock -- tubes made thirty to seventy years ago and stored since that time -- some of us use them ) will cost you whatever you are willing to pay.

Whether matching is necessary depends on the amplifier design. Output tubes often need to be matched, and the new tube sellers sell matched sets if you need them. Driver tube matching becomes important if you are buying used tubes for use in pairs, quads, etc. Otherwise you can just buy a pair or a quad of new ones.

Resources... do you mean where to buy tubes, or where to find out more? New tubes are easy to find.

Breaking in a new tube might take ten or twenty hours of use.

Tube gear does need a little more care than the other kind. Mostly you need to keep it well-ventilated so that overheating never becomes a problem.

Enjoy!