What do you see as the downside of tubes?

This is usually only an issue though in the summer months, as in the winter you will actually appreciate the (rather costly) space heaters!

Oh so true with a pair of CAT JL-3's here in Minnesota.

Ah nuts, had I only tried putting a Mack truck on my old PS Audio amp before I got into tube amps, I would have saved a lot of pain and suffering from the hassle of tube amps.

buy an amp that's fused so you don't have to send the unit out for repairs (or learn to solder) anytime you short a tube

There is no guarantee that a fuse will go before a tube blows a resistor or fries a circuit-board trace. The ARC VT130 that I owned years ago and the CAT amps that I own now both have fuses but damage can be done long before the power line fuse ever knows there is a problem.

In defense of Dave_b here, I understand what he has written. As a tube diehard here, I have owned many tube preamps (ARC SP-10, LS5, BAT P10/31SE, Aesthetix Io/Callisto Sig) in the last 25 years that did indeed have a layer of grain and haze compared to the ultimately transparent solid state models that I have heard: Krell, Mark Levinson, klyne, Spectral. But these solid state products tend to be dimensionally flat compared to the tube products I have listed. But the above tube products had a level of musical realism that the sterile solid state products could not match.

No matter how "transparent" the sound may be, if the notes are instantly truncated and the harmonic overtones die rather quickly as well, I am not interested. Every time I have tried another preamp (line stage) in my system, I go for piano music. And then I run upstairs to hit a few keys on the piano. It's amazing and quite sad at how many line stages, tube products included, fail this test. But a few tube products nail it unlike any solid state line stage I have tried. And this is why I still have no tolerance for a solid state preamp. Surely there must be one that stands out from the crowd, but I have not heard it.

As for the issue of getting a preamp that excells in the 3D and clarity departments, my quest is over with the Aria WV. The other products I owned are quite a ways back from this performance. And with a little effort with trying various tubes in the line and phono stages and the PS, this product can be taken to a whole new level or performance than its stock EH/Sovtek tubes.

With tube products, and a lot of effort and patience, I can tune the system to my priorities and to the room to achieve a great balance of tonal coherency, dynamic contrasts and 3D. With solid state products I am stuck with the sound of the base product. At best I can move the speakers around or use cables as tonal bandaids to integrate the system to the room. But I have little to no control of the dynamics or dimensionally.

Knowing what I found out about tube variety, I will not buy amps, and preamps. The cost is just too high.

This is total nonsense. Trying a budget product and giving up on tubes because of a few problems is hardly a valid reason to dismiss tubes wholeheartedly. I have discovered a number of small signal tubes in the $30-50 per pair that quite easily destroy tubes selling these days at $500 or more. But it takes a well built product to show the strengths and differences.

I have tubes only in my DAC. All the layering, spatial clues, and tonality of the tubes are expressed,

You just keep on convincing yourself of this.

I tried the H20 amp in my system a few years ago and the one thing that the old and lowly backup Counterpoint NPS400 amp did was to significantly outperform the H20 amp in the context of portrayal of space and decays. And this is a hybrid amp with small-signal tubes on the input. The main amps I use, CAT JL-3 are of course in a completely different league than this. But a JL-2 or the Atmasphere MA1's would be fine to show what tube amps would do to take this to the next level. So one can be convinced that all they need is tubes in their DAC to achieve the strengths of tubes, but my experience paints quite a different picture.

And if you need an amp to drive 1-ohm loads, the CATs can be tweaked to accommodate this and not blink an eye.

Dgarretson, Thanks for your input here. I had the PH2 for 6-7 years and loved it. This was the one sleeper in the ARC product line that truly was an outstanding product. I only "upgraded" to the BAT P10 as I wanted more phono gain and benefitted with a little more foundation in the bass. I can imagine that a parts update, 15 years later would open up significantly the PH2 in dynamics and clarity.

As for the TX2575 contributions in the Aria, I do not know since I did not hear one with the "standard" Vishay resistors. But if you read my lengthy (sorry) review of the Aria, 2/3 of the way down, you will see that I did a major overhaul to a Counterpoint SA-2.

When the stock SA-2 died, I discussed many options with Michael Elliot. Ultimately it was a cap in the PS that failed. I suggested that he rebuild the PS with the same parts as the Aria. And to also switch over to a Plitron transformer....in an external chassis that I found on a DIY site. I was so overwhelmed by the performance of this that I bought another SA-2. Comparing these two units, it was the Plitron that was 70-80% of the performance improvements with the rebuilt SA-2. This was easy to verify as I could swap the old and new transformers between the two SA-2s. I knew then more than ever the importance of a PS transformer, in a preamp anyway. And I suspect this has more to do with the Aria's level of dynamics and clarity (as it too uses the Plitron) than due to the TX2575 resistors.

I went onto to replace 20 resistors in the SA-2's audio stage. This was a well spent $200. The improvement in clarity went up another notch, but otherwise the sonic signature was untouched. And finally, the remaining RelCaps in the audio stage were updated to Dynamicaps as used in the Aria and the SA-2's rebuilt PS. And again similar benefits but the 3D strengths of this unit remain.

So from these experiences, I attribute the Aria's clarity to the Plitron, the very simplistic circuit design of the phono and line stages, and most definitely the TX2575 resistors ..... in this order.

As for the Aria and SA-2 excelling as tube products, I attribute this to their tube PS more than anything. Even with stock tube in the PS, the sound is quite amazing. But I have discovered 3 tubes here that take this unit to a whole new level of 3D performance. This is one area that the above updates do not affect very much. And with nearly the same tube compliment in the Aria's PS, I have found these tubes to do the same thing here.

The other major benefit is that a very high percentage of tube line stages out there are 6922 based. With the Aria, I can run tubes in the 12AU7 family. And I have found a few types that significantly outperform (it's not even close) my coveted Amperex 6922 PQ pinched waist, and at a fraction of the 6922 cost.

So yes, the TX2575 contribute to the Aria's stellar performance, but a number of other factors, mainly the Plitron and the all new designs in the audio stages, coupled with the long proven tube PS here, have far more to do with this.