Valves are like vinyl. They didnt really go away at all, just got pushed aside.
Yes I would steer a newbie to a valve setup. Maybe depends on how much spenduleh you have to chase your dream, but valves beat anything else ( except live music of course ) and is cheap if you know where to look.
Valve prices ?? Thats a VERY tricky question indeed. There are many modern products that for home hi fi can be quite cheap. In my humble experience though, the modern ones that I have tried do not match new old stock products. NOS made in USA, Holland, UK or Australia are highly desirable, and if you get an ethical dealer should not be much more money. I have seen ads from so not so honest dealers that are really absurd, and I wonder what the vendor is smoking.
The most important item in a valve amp though, is not the valves but the transformers that are used therein. America used produce some un beatable transformers, but like most countries today, have lost the knowledge base as the craftsmen die off. China produces so very good transformers at a fraction of the cost of what is available in the west ( western countries, not cowboy ground ).
One can still buy VERY nice transformers in Britain, for instance, and a couple of nordic countries, but unless you live there modern freight prices will very soon collapse you budget. Even shipping from one end of Britain to the other has become very expensive.
There are Chinese complete amplifiers available for very cheap ( comparativly ), but they are too new to know about lifetimes.
A well designed amp, that has had reasonable care, may go for 50 or 60 years with only a few repairs or upgrades.
That brings me back to components. Today there are thousands of options, where in the past there were only a very few, but those from 50 years ago, believe it or not, were better quality than those available today. Some of them also contained some VERY toxic substances like PCB's. ( Polychlorinated Biphenyls a know cancer producing agent, and now banned for most of the world ) So do know what you are dealing with if you decide to do any "home repairs".
A valve amplifier, mostly runs in class AB, although there are pure class A units available, they do produce LOTS of heat, and cost LOTS of electricity to run. The sound quality for a good one ranges from excellent to superb, BUT comes at a cost. At a minimum more than half the power used is released as heat. Also, the ouput valves mostly have shortish lives.
AB produces sound from very good to approaching excellent. Its about as economical as good Hi-Fi becomes as far as service life, heat, and power consumption goes. Its also usually very reliable.
Class AB1 gives excellent sound, but does produce a bit more heat, uses a bit more power, and can eat up more valves depending on how its used.
All the above are mostly easy to repair should something go wrong, and parts are "run of the mill " excepting some of the highest quality amplifiers that use esoteric parts and various unobtainium pixie dust components. Remember Hi-Fi beginnings!!!!.
MOST parts came from a few only suppliers. Asia had not emerged yet, there were all sorts of silly tariffs and protection systems in place, to protect each countries industry, so one normally one didnt see imported equipment very often, except of course the very wealthy.
To be continued
J.
