Reliability of tubes/ Belles 150A vs Jolida 801A?

Thanks for your helpful responses, Tvad and Mofimadness. If the maintanence is not an issue with tubes, I might as well go ahead and listen to both units and see how my ears respond.

OK, this has been helpful. I HAVE lived through failing tubes with guitar amps. However, having grown up listening to music played through tube amps, that's the sound my ears want to hear-- it's what they expect and what they judge as "desirable". However, this isn't the case with audio. And it's not important to me whether what goes wrong is in the amp or in the tube-- I don't want to have to screw around with figuring out which it might be to begin with! I just want to turn it on and focus on the music. Tvad, you hit the nail on the head re: "comfort level". I suspect the truth is that I lack the patience to deal with tubes, period, when it comes to music listening.

Tvad, that's great news! And thanks to you and everyone else for helping me sort this out.

Bmr2a, I appreciate the suggestion, but I'm going to stick with ss; if I'm not mistaken, the 2.5 is a tubed preamp.

Avguygeorge, I have to admit that I hadn't ever heard anyone refer to the Hotrod as a "toy" before... I suppose it all depends upon one's perspective. The fact is, I'm committed to buying the amp and pre-amp new from a small local dealer who has spent alot of time advising me, who has brought gear out to my house, etc. I can afford to buy the Hotrod and Soloist new-- but not the Reference models.

Hey, Avguygeorge; there's no "bad" to forgive! I would buy a used Reference 150 in a second if I felt freee to do that, but this dealer has, like I said, spent ALOT of time with me. So we are in agreement.