He as a noobie to tubes asked basic questions since he is still learning. Looking from afar, I am disappointed that many tube guys dont share the knowledge and further act as if price no object is not a concern. fore example, in car styereo stuff, my domain, you can start with units at $349 and get good but not great stuff going to $850 and each step of the way you can see what you get for each dollar jump up and for the $800 to $1200 range its diminishing returns and often bragging rights. There is enough info on crutchfield and the vendor sites to evaluate the various units if you take the time to investigate. However with tube amps and such, there is not so much info and much of it is hype so its difficult to investigate. Tube stuff is way more difficult to investigate when a noob buys, seems way more difficult to seperate hype from fact, perhaps because the tube market is so small and a niche product.
Because to a certain extent that's what tube amps are about. In terms of SNR and THD they do a lot worse than properly designed solid state amps for the same price, and those that measure well in terms of both as well as have low output impedance and a lot of power tend to be really expensive because these are the SEPP designs that have three transformers, a rectifier tube plus a preamp tube and driver tube per channel. You can build a solid state amp that measures as well as that for half the money that weighs less and costs less to ship (from the manufacturer to dealers or to you, and from you to anyone who'd repair them down the line).
And then there's the bling factor - taking long exposure shots of amps with the tube glow for illumination is kind of like the audio forum equivalent of RGB LED for people who make their own PCs, or having underglow in your Japanese econobox and a matched LED in the plexiglass-windowed subwoofer box when you open the trunk in the parking lot (and then you have the stereotypical scantily clad girls dancing around it wearing some performance parts or subwoofer brand manufacturer's logo).
Then there's buying the tubes. Some NOS tubes are expensive, and they have to match - either two separate tubes that match or a dual channel tube like the 12AX7 that measures well on both. Reissue tubes might have lower noise, but sometimes slightly lower gain; sometimes microphonic noise is noticeably worse (not much of a problem with headphone systems since the soundwaves aren't pounding the room, unless you listen while typing and the amp is on the same desk as the keyboard); in some cases they might sound cleaner and balanced but in other cases they actually sound like tin cans vs NOS tubes. And then sometimes you get bum NOS tubes. By contrast you can go into any electronics parts dealers and put down an order for a few LM4171.
Personally, if I was to recommend a tube amp over a solid state amp, it would be because:
1) It's easier to roll a tube off the socket than desolder off a busted chip and solder on a new one for diagnosis and repair
2) It's easier to find into on what effects tube rolling does vs op-amp rolling, although in my case my concern is often "less noise without sacrificing gain" and a lot less "syrupy oozy warm sound that makes Norah Jones sound like she has sinusitis" (ie like how my LD MkII had a tendency to make my headphones sound worse as earpad wear developed than any of my other amps)
3) You just want to pour a lot of voltage into a high impedance headphone for a lot less than a Violectric SS amp, ie, a good but relatively inexpensive OTL like the Darkvoice DV336se
