New to tubes

Yes that is one thing I have noticed - there is a almost overwhelming sea of variety in tube manufacturers, tube types/characteristics, modifications/tweaks, etc. Lots to learn - I guess I'll just pick one to start and see what I like from there. I live in the NYC area so I figure I can demo a few things as well. I went to look at the offerings from Consonance and I noticed the Cyber 10 Multi Integrated SET amp - neato all in one option for my lossless-encoded music files along with class A operation to boot. Not sure if it's enough juice for my MA's though....

Thanks to all for the great response and info!

I've been meaning to upgrade my trusty old Denon for some time now - I like the sound of my Monitor Audios, but they may be a touch bright on the top end. Originally considered SS seperates, but then I decided to go wholly different and give tubes a try - I love idiosyncracies, I have plenty of them myself. Also love tinkering, tweaking, and the occasional fiddling. Also have much preferred the 'thick' sound of my Fender tube guitar amps vs. various SS guitar amps so I look forward to the same experience in my audio setup.

Ok so I'm adding Cayin and SoundQuest to my list for research. Can't wait to join the club!

Thats cool - Judging by how the MA's sound with the Denon (a bit warmer on the SS side of things), I am hoping they will sound brilliant with tubes... hoping :) I spoken to alot of people about the Silver series, and it's kind of a love/hate thing overall. I in particular love them, though I do hear what people are saying about them being strong or edgy in the high range. A high impedance tube amp would likely roll the top end off a bit, which might be just the trick - as soon as I decide on something I will let you know my experience.

With regard to the SET, I know the sensitivity rating on the MA's is borderline. I also know that slight tube amp breakup is much easier on the ears than the abrupt clipping of SS, so tube watts tend to sound 'louder'. I also know many of these high end mini SET amps sound alot louder than their ratings compared to some other tube amps. And lastly I also have the powered MA ASW210 sub paired with my 5i's - so I am thinking of running the tube amp to the speaker level inputs of the sub and then out to the 5i's, and set the sub crossover at 60-80hz - this might put a bit less of a load on a smaller tube amp.... although I have no idea what kind of impedance curve the amp will see with this setup... guess I just have to jump in and try it! :)

Grenamc, I happened to find this in poking around today:

http://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/Ma9fig1.jpg

From the Stereophile review of the 9i - this image shows their measured impedance for the 9i (solid line). Don't know enough about how this will affect power delivery and frequency response curve when used with a high output impedance tube amp, but it looks to me you might see a boost around 40 hz, 200hz, a dip around 2khz, and a boost around the 10khz mark (as compared to an ultra low impedance SS amp). Again this is just my novice interpretation from what I've read so far, but I thought it would be interesting for you to see this. Regarding my 5i's, I'm my impedance curve is likely different as I have a different crossover setup in mine. BTW there's a guy I found here who does crossover upgrade work on the Monitor Audio Silvers who says it's worth it - I haven't followed up with him yet but he goes by Vman71 here.