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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 3 responses by phd

phd
1,328 posts
 
Heat heat, slowly destroying the other electronic parts, have been known to cause circuit fire, burning down the house, can't turn your back on them. In addition they are wearing themselves out as soon as they are turned on, eventually there will be a tube shortage & all the tube amp owners will end up using them for expensive paperweights. Other than that, tubes sound pretty darn good.
phd
1,328 posts
 
Krauti, GM as well as some other major car manufacturers are very capable of building some of the worlds best vehicles but it is a terrible shame that top management failed to make the transition from gasoline vehicles to greener transportation. They had plenty of time to contemplate this years ago. Global warmer is a serious threat and if we continue to on the path were on, no one will be employed. Will be too busy trying to survive.

Anyway there is a downside to everything, both solid state and tubes, just pick your poison.
phd
1,328 posts
 
Dan ed, my comments in regards to GM were directly related to Krauti's last post that he was hopeful that he would still be employed by GM because of their recent filing for bankruptcy. So you see sir that that he himself injected a comment that had little to do with his own thread. I was just pointing out that part of GMs trouble is related to some of their failures to change.

A minority of members carry so much anger that they have to resort to cursing. It is ok with me, I know times are tough but it makes little sense to lose your credibilty even though the thread was briefly misdirected.

If every audiophile purchased class D amps, it still would have little effect on the enviroment since we as audiophiles represent a small segment of society. You buy what ever turns you on but my final comment that there is a downside to both tubes & solid state holds true and it's just a matter of chosing whatever turns you on.
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