What do you see as the downside of tubes?


I have decided on getting a tube amp and it will be the integrated Mastersound 300B driving a pair of Living Voice Avatars, so at least that decision has been taken.

My main question is what you see as downsides of having a tube amp. As I've decided on getting an integrated tube it's really about what the downsides are I might want to know about beforehand.

The ones I'm aware are the following.

-The tubes need to be replaced and in the case of a 300B this will be somewhat costly.

-Bias is another issue but I'm not sure how big an issue. Do you plug in your meter every so often or just when you roll tubes or replace a dead one? The meter as such isn't gonna be a big issue as I don't think it's that expensive.

-Heat won't be a big issue as we have no kids nor a nosy dog that could get burned. Hope my electricity bill isn't gonna go through the roof, but then again, I can't quite imagine that.

I'd appreciate if you could add whatever your experiences are regarding this question are as I'd like to know more before I buy it.

Thanks
krauti
My friend has two lava lamps, Carver electronics and Double Advents, and a Members Only jacket.
Not sure if anyone mentioned that some tube amps may take a while to warm up and sound right after turned on.

I think tubes at the line stage level in the source or pre-amp rather than in the power amp are a lower impact way to get some of the merits of good tube sound while minimizing the exposure to some of the downsides mentioned. That's where I am with my system at present.
My friend has two lava lamps, Carver electronics and Double Advents, and a Members Only jacket.
Bizango1 (Threads | Answers)
You know Mr. Malolepsy, my junior high gym teacher?
For me the downside is lack of power, and thus
compatibility with my speakers...Usher 6381 that Usher states are mated better with SS. I'm guessing its because they're probably difficult to drive adequately with most tube amps. I'm bummed, I'd love to try one.
Wow, I've never received more replies to a post than this one. Guess what Semi said is what convinced me most :)

Seems that the availability of tubes will be the biggest issue to be considered, followed by the heat. As I don't listen for long stretches of time the heat should be tolerable and knowing that tubes are expensive simply means that I'll have some fun looking for them right away while they are still available.

Haven't actually dropped the money for it yet but will very soon and can't wait to get it. Right now I'm using my old Denon receiver and it's not quite what I want to use on the long run, otherwise I could have kept my Electrocompaniets as these of course were a lot nicer as far as SS stuff goes than the Denon.

Well, glad I got all the replies and feel highly encouraged to go for the tubes. The only direction I could imagine changing my mind to is to a tube amp that uses more affordable tubes and I'm not really considering that yet.

Thanks again