i've always been cheap with guitar gear ... and i have always played on cheap solid state amps on bars and rehearsal studios.
then i got myself a cheap Fender Hotrod Deluxe - i know its expensive, but still, i think this one falls in the "budget tube amp" category, and wow!!! my dirt pedals sounded alive! they breathe and react to my playing
oh i have to say that i only use the clean channel of the amp, cause i am a pedal head, and i do not want my investment to go to waste. i did try the dirt channel though, and i find it pretty generic, not as terrible as cheap solid state distortion or cheap pedal distortion, theres really just nothing special with it.
that alone has convinced me that tube amps are better at the price point i am playing in ...
however, i do admit, i am curious what a tube amp with useable dirt channel would sound like ... im thinking of getting a mesa boogie dual rectifier combo in the future. i will only spend on combos ... half stacks are just too impractical for the gigs i play.