Warren- The Shanling has a tube output, which you can bypass fwiw, a great looking unit that sounds pretty good for the money and can be run in several different configurations. Pretty neat how it works even if your not interested in the unit its worth looking into.
As other's have stated if you go with tubes you will need powerful tube amps which are a lot of $$$, if your willing to spend it some feel it is the way to go. The reason I did not run tubes was the heat they would generate. Even with central air cranking during the summer months I had a tube amp and it got really warm- with a pair of large monoblocks you would be uncomfortable. Other shortcomings: tubes need replacing and on large amps that can be expensive- tube rolling will eventually tempt you; you will not be able to leave them on all of the time and increase your cold/hot cycles which is harder on everything- not to mention you need to wait for them to warm up; big tube amps need each output tube biased and this will take a little while to get the hang of. The flip side of this coin is that tube amps produce midrange that no ss amp can, always trade off's.
As another member asked what is your budget? We could make suggestions both SS and tubed from that.
As other's have stated if you go with tubes you will need powerful tube amps which are a lot of $$$, if your willing to spend it some feel it is the way to go. The reason I did not run tubes was the heat they would generate. Even with central air cranking during the summer months I had a tube amp and it got really warm- with a pair of large monoblocks you would be uncomfortable. Other shortcomings: tubes need replacing and on large amps that can be expensive- tube rolling will eventually tempt you; you will not be able to leave them on all of the time and increase your cold/hot cycles which is harder on everything- not to mention you need to wait for them to warm up; big tube amps need each output tube biased and this will take a little while to get the hang of. The flip side of this coin is that tube amps produce midrange that no ss amp can, always trade off's.
As another member asked what is your budget? We could make suggestions both SS and tubed from that.