Will tubes rock?

Pinetop: How large is your listening room? This will help determine what amps may and may not work. And yes, I feel that tubes do rock when paired with the right speakers (my 7 watt per channel 300b tube amp does anyway). I also have an inexpensive Musical Fidelity SS amp that has a wonderful midrange. I dont agree with many of the sterotypes :-) given to both SS and tubes as long as the components (including the room) are well matched.

Pinetop:

Dunno if this exactly qualifies, but for my secondary system I am running an older (like 15 yrs?) NYAL Moscode 300. It's a hybrid tube amp (tubed input stage, ss output) and I have found the thing it does best is rock! It's no slouch on classical and jazz, just lacking in the crisp definition I'd gotten used to on my primary system. But feed this amp a little r-n-r and crank up the pots and yikes - "you are there"! I also think that comparative lack of definition helps with the poorer recording by emphasizing tone over detail. For example - I have a cd with horrible sibiliance (demo cd by a co-workers' spawn recorded by technically challenged friends) but on the NYAL it is significantly less distressing to listen to, even at rock volume. The trade-off is that (again, comparatively) the bass notes tend towards sliding into place, rather than snapping from note to note. I am listening to a good recording of Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" the Fantasy Overture, as I write this, it has a kettle drum pounding away at one point and it sounds like a staccato rumble - you hear each individual beat, yet the overall effect is a constant throb. With Led Zepplin (musical tastes run the full spectrum in this house) I may not hear the pluck of the string, but I do get the full bass line underneath it all, and for most rock recordings that's all you're likely to get anyway (said with a grin, folks!). Naturally, results vary (the bass "slide" is less pronounced on Paradigm Monitor 9's than on Silverline SR-17's, but the 'digms are only down to 46hz, while the SR-17's work down to 38hz, and I am flying sub-less here).

That's a long answer that only needed to say "Yes, tubes can rock, and be forgiving of source material". But hey, I've had two cups of coffee already.

chas

A minor correction; Rogues don't use 6550's they use kt88's.

Using my Sonic Frontiers SFS-40 with Paradigm Studio Monitors (the big guys!) in my 17' by 12' by 7.5' living room I can honestly say that for rock music it just didn't cut it. My Bryston B-60 was a much better match when the volume needed to be upped a little. But your speakers are probably an easier load and if your room is on the small side, a medium powered tube amp like mine could be enough for you. The biggest area that suffered with the tube amp (if you can call it suffering - it still sounded good), was bass slam and ultimate control. The mids and highs here gorgeous!. My advice would be to get a good sounding solid state amp that has the power you need, and only buy tubes if you can afford big beefy tube amps where power is not a concern. A used pair of Sonic Frontiers SFS-80s (monoblocs) might be the ticket. Hope this helps.

Allen

Pinetop, what Spicas do you have? I would concur with the Rogue monoblocks. Also, VAC PA160 monoblocks are an excellent value on the re-sale market if you can find them (I prefer the MkI's to the MkII's). Also check out the Mesa Baron -- maybe the rockingest (new word?) "affordable" tube amp out there.