Tube Versus SolidState

[FLZapped]

I need to determine why I would or would not want tube or solidstate. Any comments?

Well, tubes generate far more heat, making them way less energy efficient. (You pay for it twice if you have air conditioning) They usually have more distortion, lower damping factors, higher noise floors. Otherwise, they are great.

-Bruce

[skeptic]

They are also far less reliable. The MTBF (mean time between failure) of a well made solid state amplifier is far greater than the MTBF for a well made tube amplifier. They also don't start to deteriorate as soon as you turn them on. The most unstable performer I can think of is a tube amplifier with no feedback. You'd wonder if it would ever perform the same way twice. BTW, IMO, the main shortcoming of any tube amplifier is the output transformer. Contrary to the claims of the author of the poorly written paper in PCTower's thread about must read, eddy current and hysterisis losses as well as imperfect mutual transconductance coupling is the major reason why tube amplifiers have their characteristeric sound. And except for the rare OTL Futterman clones such as NYAL they all have it.