[RapidRonnie]

3. Compared to solid state, tube amps are a pain in the
ass. They hum, hiss, burble, and motorboat, either out
of the box, or many years before a SS amp would be
vulnerable to aging components.
Nonsense. Solid state amps fail hard and take speakers
with them all the time.

And tubed amps never ever fried speakers? Surely you jest!

It's happened but not to me.


Whenever you start talking about accidents, you have to consider the number
of tubed amps versus the number of SS amps. At this point, tubed amps
probably make up less than 0.1% of all amplifiers in use.

If even that many, but when you consider the percent overall as
restricted to serious hobbyists it's 25% or so.


Tube ones rarely do.

One reason - tubed amps are themselves quite rare.

No, among _high end hobbyists_ they are fairly common.


They are easier for the hobbyist to troubleshoot.

Those of us who lived through the bad old days of tubes, know that SS amps
are tremendously more reliable.

Those of us living in the good new days of tubes have no trouble
keeping them running with some good basic technicianship and the
appropriate tools. We don't need curvetracers, constant current bias
supplies or milling machines to keep them going.