You can get slam with tubes. I have 1 watt Serious Stereo monoblocks that have plenty of slam with my highly efficient Altec 604 drivers. These amps though are more than your price range. As far as system noise the Serious Stereo 2A3's do have a small bit of tube hum. This could be mostly eliminated by humbucking resistors which most manufacturers put in their amps. The problem is that there is no way to eliminate hum noise without taking some of the music along with it. Serious Stereo feels the trade off is not worth it. I have to agree as these are the best sounding amps I have had in my system by far. Once the music is playing you do not hear it. I have addressed other noise related issues though and must say that controlling the ground on your system is an incredible upgrade. Audio Magic makes a ground disrupter that eliminates ground noise throughout your system and it seems to really work well. There are other similar products out there and it is worth checking out.
Slam possible with Tubes instead of SS ??
I like the sound of tubes having a Sonic Frontiers tube pre amp. Is it possible to get that good SS slam I like from a a reasonably priced tube amp? Using an aragon 8002 ss amp at present. Looking to spend about $2 K max if I decide to jump the fence. Yes i do like to feel the bass and do want want to give that up.