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Tired of Problems with Tube Equipment

I switched over to tube audio equipment in some form some years back, and have certainly enjoyed music played back through them. I have had amps, preamps, and DACS at different times utilizing tubes. One unfortunate thing that's been common to all the tube equipment I've had are problems. It doesn't seem to matter whether the manufacturer is large or small, built in the USA or overseas, they all have had problems. Capacitors blowing out, bad solder joints, tubes only lasting a short time, loud pops that mysteriously go away on their own, etc. Although I have enjoyed the sound (and that beautiful glow!), I am starting to get tired of this and thinking of going back to solid state.

Have any of you also gone back (or thought about it) to solid state for this reason? What has your experience been with the reliability of tube equipment?
smeyers
tvad
9,467 posts
 
Husk01, I'll perhaps share more on this topic later, but for now I'm not going to comment on the specifics.
trelja
3,215 posts
 
I've had a lot of tube and solid state amplifiers in my systems, and have been fairly lucky on both counts. Still, the tube amplifiers, apart from loudspeakers, have proven to be the most reliable components I've encountered.
cruz123
585 posts
 
Five years, 3 tube amps, 2 tubed cdp's, one tube failure, no other problems.
gsm18439
738 posts
 
In my limited experience reliability issues are more manufacturer-dependent than whether the equipment is SS or whether it uses tubes.
jallen
502 posts
 
I had SS equipment, and had bad capacitors, faulty relay switches, bad output transistors, and I went to tubes, and have had a few bad tubes, but less problems than with SS, and I can listen to the tubes longer. There are no service-free roads in the audio journey. That is just the way it is in audio world.....Then a few years go by with few problems and you are glad you remained in there....
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