Transitioning: back to solid state....

Hi Viggen,
I don't feel you need to buy expensive NOS tubes to get good sound. The modern day svetlana's sound wonderful. I've heard good things about the eh's as well. It's only a hundred bucks or so to replace the power tubes in a ca-50. If you have efficient speakers, that's one of the best sounding amps out there. You want to buy a matched quad of 6550 power tubes. If kt88's will work, you might want to consider them. Call ARC about that.

See www.thetubestore.com for good prices. If you want a little help with biasing check out the manual & search for past threads on this forum. It's a 30 minute job the first time, 15 thereafter. Make sure your test leads have rubber sheaths around them. All you need is a $20 radio shack multi-meter.

OK, I'm a bit confused here....so it seems you're frustrated with the idea of the 'maitenance' of having a tube amp. It seems like the only issue was biasing, and the cost of tubes as per your initial post. Yet you are looking for an SS amp that will give you a 'tube-sound'...or rather a tube-lovers SS amp?! You say you have speakers that are specifically geared towards tubes, but have not specified what those might be. I assume they are the Tannoy monitors, which you comment in your system profile that you LOVE. So the SS thing is purely a convenience-driven decision...yes? There are fine auto-biasing tube amplifiers that you might consider as an alternative. I don't know about your financial priorities or funds available, but it looks like you've invested in some pretty nice gear thus far. As long as you stick to used gear, you can buy and sell to your hearts content and not loose a significant amount of $ in the process (that's the grease that keeps Audiogon going isn't it?). Why not look into the tube alternatives since your known preference occurs to me in the realm of tubes (I am only inferring this by the tone of your posts)? Learning how to bias an amp sure isn't rocket science, and good tubes are pretty stable for the most part. I check my bias once a week on my work system that requires biasing, but for the amount of times I actually tweak the bias, it might as well be once a month. My 300B SET's are auto-biasing and are of the most amazing sounding amps I've ever heard. I'm not knocking SS, but my preference is clearly with tubes and I doubt I'll change. For me it's worth what small hassle it may bring, and I actually enjoy the little tweaks and changes and challenges. On another note, 30 hours doesn't occur to me as enough to break in a brand new SS amp (I'm assuming it's new since you are implying a break-in period). Give it more like 300 hours and then see what it sounds like. This stuff is supposed to be fun! If you don't like it, sell it and try something different. It's all about personal preferences, space, sound and synergy. The best you can do here is get only a hint at the latter.

Sorry Viggen, I guess I wouldn't mind the lowest of the low in the Porsche line up. The lowest ARC(which I am not sure is true or even matters)is still high performance stuff.

John! is right about the Svetlana 6550c and "just say no to NOS". Svetlanas sound great in ARC VT serie stuff. The Electro harmonics 6550's are great tubes too but I wouldn't go that way in other than the new VS series amps. A friend tried them in his VT and they sounded horrid. He talked to ARC and they told him they got the same bad result when they tried them in a VT 100.

Hi again,

Thanks for all your responses so far. Sorry to draw you all in with me into my frustration.

There is one other reason that I didn't include to why I want to go back to solid state. Well, I move around in my apartment a lot. And, I sometimes forget to turn my amp off when I end up in another room. I thought if I had a solid state again, this would allow me not to keep a close eye on the tubes and eliminates the need to replace them. Furthermore, and this is being very nit picky, I hate waiting for the tubes to warm up.

Of course, I am very happy with the sound coming from the CA50, but I am looking for a best of both worlds scenario here.

And I've just struck a deal with a fine gentleman from Audiogon on another amp that I've listed in the beginning of this thread. Should get it in a few days.

Also, the solid state amp I recently purchased is used, but it probably hasn't been used in a few months. So I am, not exactly burning it in but warming it back up. Sorry for the confusion.

If this solid state doesn't work, then I might just stick with the CA50 or look into some autobiasing amps as some of you suggested.

Do you have Daddys' money or what? when I was going to school...I was lucky to have a boom-box...let alone comtemplating tubes vs. solid state amps...my advice...dont worry about it...have fun at school...dont take this stuff too serious until you land a well-paying,albeit mundane job,and have hours to dedicate to this site like the rest of us...good luck with your studies...