Some people may need to read this thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/514954/woo-audio-wa6-vs-little-dot-mk-vi
They would see how absurd a prejudice is.
It's not necessarily prejudice.
I do not like tubes on PCBs. You can make a working amp, but tube heat isn't great for PCBs. Also, the boards flex when you insert/remove tubes, which has a way of cracking solder joints, especially ones that have been exposed to a lot of heat. If you have to remove components off a PCB, you run a good risk of lifting a pad. If a failed part burns or scorches the PCB, it can be difficult or impossible to repair. If the PCB gets really screwed up, you might have to replace it. The labor involved would be equal to building a new amp.
PCBs aside, I'm damned particular about transformers. I don't screw around with power transformers, especially. They have to be
brand name transformers made in good factories.
The iron is a lot like the tires on your car. Would you rather ride on something you trust, or do you want to drive on tires that come from whothehellknowswhere, and possibly made by a 9 year-old earning 15¢ a day, but are only $39.99 for a set of four? When it comes to something that could start a fire, you don't buy cheap. You buy
known goods when it could possibly harm you.
The cheap amps have really, really cheap power supplies. That's the least sexy part of the amp, but the most important. Part quality aside, the cheap amps use the least amount of parts to get it to barely work. This means AC ripple in the supply and cut corners everywhere. The cheap amps really are cheap. If you want clean, smooth DC, it costs. Period. There are no two ways about this.
If you want tube amps that are safe to operate, repairable and aren't just the bare minimum, you either pay or build it yourself. Most of the cheap stuff is marketed like crazy, but will become worthless junk down the line. They
barely have enough quality to work.
Solid state is different. It works well on PCBs and you can heatsink chips so they don't overheat the boards. Further, it runs on 12V-24V or so, which is fine. Also, it's much less costly to do a good job of rectification and regulation of small voltages. I have a problem with putting 300V or more on a PCB, and I don't give a rip if it's "milspec" or anything. Tubes should be point-to-point. I'm not buying, building or recommending any tube device that isn't point-to-point.
What irritates me is the attitude that if you find some cheap box with shiny bling, the opportunity to tuberoll and heavy marketing, that it somehow makes everything more expensive a "ripoff."
No, this isn't price snobbery. It's about quality. I'd much rather have one of those $299 Dynalos than a $1,000 "balanced" amp that actually isn't balanced, but has XLR jacks. The Dynalo is an excellent circuit and it appears to be well-made. Actually, I'd rather use an old receiver left out for trash collection than a shoddy amp. There's a reason why I often tell people to find an old receiver. Many of them are well made.
Quality is everything. You can find it at low prices, but you have to know what you're looking for. If you don't know what makes a good amp, you're going to fall victim to hype, shills and marketing.