The ups and downs of tube vs. SS...

Tubes sound better. They can be slightly more upkeep than SS but not by much at least not to me. My amp and preamp sound great and have been totally reliable for over 10 years with minimal hassle other than replacing tubes. I specifically chose an amp that uses EL34's as those are relatively cheap and thus my tube costs are not high either. That is my experience as with all things YMMV.

One obvious exception was when I put in my brother’s Bryston 7B-ST monoblocks and they buried the Vincent. A tad bright for my taste but the overall detail and the added bass was quite impressive.

@kalali Just think if you found it a tad bright now how you would feel after an extended audition? Even that extra detail can start to wear and just not with SS amps. I had a pushpull 45 amp on loan when Deja Vu was recapping my amp and I found it too detailed. All the details were making it hard to focus on the music.

@passet02 With all due respect that sounds like an issue with your amp itself not tubes. In my opinion a well built, point to point wired tube amp is harder to break and easier to fix and more prone to long term reliability. Sure there is a certainly level of interaction with your gear you don't get with SS but to me that's the fun part.