Never Owned a Tube Amp and Want Advice


Hi All, 

I have never owned a tube amplifier before and am planning to purchase one with a minimum of 50 watts per channel to mate with 8 ohm 88 dbl speakers.

My hope is experienced audiogoners will share their expertise regarding how to approach this. While I realize listening is the best way to learn about sound and compatibility; I want to learn a better understanding about brands with less maintenance and longer tube life, how to decide between mono or stereo,can a newbie play with bias or is auto biasing a better first choice, etc.

I would also appreciate what to look for in selecting a used tube amp to identify one that might be in need of repair. For example, with solid state depending on the brand, capacitor replacement can be more of a concern. Any advice on what to look out for or ask about with used tube amps would be appreciated.

A big question I have is how to understand the relationship between power tubes like E34's, 120.s, etc. and, I guess the driver? tubes like 12au7's and 12at7's. That  is to ask which is more critical to the overall sound of the amp? FWIW, I routinely tube roll with my preamps.  

I 've read through a number of threads but maybe someone can point me to good ones I may have missed. 

Thanks for listening,

Dsper
dsper

Showing 2 responses by audioman58

I have owned every type of tube amps out there 
key questions what are your speakers efficiency,
room size, kind of music , how loud spl level
as a Former Audiostore owner these are key .
SET is the most pure or direct signal then triode, pentode.
SET  typically is under 10 wpc, or under 20 in Parallel.
Class A triode ,pentode noticably more tactile and closer to live 
using No global feedback .vs ultralinear which uses feedback which = added distortion for best class A and deal IMO .
Ayon from Austria have several big advantages They are a pure 
class A design , their integrated amplifiers are excellent 
and USA tube  is offering great deals with things being slower then normal.I just bought another one.
the heart of a tube amp the transformers and Ayon use world class 
Lundahl , also no vibration distortion causing sheet metal,all machined aluminum , and trouble free most important tube biasing 
Ayon is the only one that uses a microprocessor to monitor voltage as well tube wear, if It finds a tube failure the amp blinks goes into mute and circuit disconnectsFor safety, In back screen will tell which tube to replace , shut down,   Replace tube, turn back on hold button in for 10 seconds it takes about 10 minutes and all tubes put in memory and running optimum ,once a month you recalibrate tubes,last longer and and optimum Sonic MA voltages. A bargain IMO
for all the precision vs  China specials ,ultralinear Cheap toroidal transformers ,and have the nerve to charge up to $5K.  C core transformers like Lundahl are recognized as the standard for a top
quality vacuum tube product.
Be8ng new to tubes my advise, Look at Ayon ,Why they had made in Austria Great build anti resonance machined aluminum not sheet metal  great Lundahl transformers very important for Fidelity 
most important, tube Safety ,Ayon has a Smart bias which is microprocessor controlled, you hit a button a few minute check 
it monitors wear and keeps each tube at optimum range under 80% of max last longer ,and if a tube goes bad ,not like some wear they glow red and explode or poor weak tube it Automatically goes into mute if a bad tube is detected
and you unplug ,or if not in the room after 15 minutes Automaticlly
Shuts off, on back indicator tells you which tube has the fault 
shut off 15 minutes ,replace tube ,turn on wait 15minutes to get up to temperature ,then hit rebias button volume off . In 3 -4 minutes 
processor calibrated blinking Ayon logo stops blinking ,ready for music .  Rebias check 1-2 months the best biasing system 
on the market I just bought another the spirit $5 is the new best of at around $5k the triton is the power house, for the average person 
the new Scorpio xs around $3100  USA tube audio 
is very good answering questions you may have the spirit I have older one 8 years old still runs perfect.