To Tube or not to Tube......


For quite some time now I've been thinking about switching from a solid state to a tube power amp. My Threshold T-100 has been real good to me and I do like it, but it's really the only "high-end" amp I've ever owned, so it's all I know. I'm intrigued by the "warm" sound of tubes and do have a tubed phono amp and CD player, but I am by no means well-versed in the sound of tube power amps having never really auditioned one. I know that goes against the prevailing wisdom and I should listen before I buy, but I don't think I will have the luxury of doing that.

That being said, I've gone through about 20 pages of this forum reading about the benefits and detriments of tubed power amps but nothing I've read has swayed me either way. The posts I've read have been informative re: bias issues, reliability, blowing fuses or whatever else might blow up or go wrong with the tubs, etc. So, if I were to go the tube route, I would not want deal with too much of that hassle. At lease I know that the amp I have doesn't have any such issues. That's why I was leaning toward amps like BAT with their auto biasing (I also need balanced inputs), and would want at least 60-100 wpc. I would be willing to deal with adjusting bias so long as it was a relatively simple process.

I figured I would pose my main question to the exerts here (and this I did learn for this forum): given what I already have in my system, what tube amp would be a good match for me? My pre-amp is a SS Threshold, JM Lab speakers with a "minimum impedance of 4 Ohms," EAR 834P phono stage, & Unison tube cd player.
Much appreciated.
ebuzz
Yes, that is what I heard. Tubes keep those Russian birds flying no matter what!
Tubes keep those Russian birds flying
Hmmm, maybe that's what bankrupted the Soviet Union...trying to find matched quads of NOS 6CCC3Bs ;-)
Ok so lets assume I decided to pull the trigger and go with tubes. Which amp would get the most votes: an ARC VS 115; mcIntosh 275 V; Jolida 502B or a BAT VK 75SE? Or maybe one of the nice Krell or Mark Levinson SS amps I see for sale here? I am a little concerned by the issues raised in this thread > Solid State to replace Audio Research REF110?
Budget? Well on the high end we have a new VS 115 at $5k ( but I can sell my T-100 for $1k, so in reality my cost is only $4K); and on the low end there's the Jolida at approx $1000.