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What do you see as the downside of tubes?

I have decided on getting a tube amp and it will be the integrated Mastersound 300B driving a pair of Living Voice Avatars, so at least that decision has been taken.

My main question is what you see as downsides of having a tube amp. As I've decided on getting an integrated tube it's really about what the downsides are I might want to know about beforehand.

The ones I'm aware are the following.

-The tubes need to be replaced and in the case of a 300B this will be somewhat costly.

-Bias is another issue but I'm not sure how big an issue. Do you plug in your meter every so often or just when you roll tubes or replace a dead one? The meter as such isn't gonna be a big issue as I don't think it's that expensive.

-Heat won't be a big issue as we have no kids nor a nosy dog that could get burned. Hope my electricity bill isn't gonna go through the roof, but then again, I can't quite imagine that.

I'd appreciate if you could add whatever your experiences are regarding this question are as I'd like to know more before I buy it.

Thanks
krauti

Showing 1 response by ejlif

ejlif's avatar
ejlif
1,377 posts
 
One downside that has not been mentioned and for me is the biggest reason not to own tubes is having to power the system up and down all the time so that you don't use up the tube life not listening. I like my system on and ready to go all the time. I found when I had tubes sometimes I wouldn't bother playing music if I only had 15 minutes or so. It just wasn't worth the hassle. Another thing that bugged me was a few different tube pieces I had could take up to 90 seconds to be ready to play. I had a CJ preamp and I would turn it on and then stand there until it clicked on and then adjust the volume so I could listen.

I think tubes sound great but so does solid state. Some people like the ritual of turning on the tubes and the fuss I'm sure.
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