The main thing preventing me from using the AVA is the way I use this system. This is our main TV system, so I turn it on/off quite frequently. For instance, I turned on the system for less than 15 minutes this morning to check the weather. I'm not sure tubes handle that well. They aren't even hot, then I shut them down.
I used a tube-based center channel in a true HT system, where we only watched movies, the Super Bowl, listened to music, and I always had the system on a while. By contrast, for this current application, the system will often be on for minutes at a time.
Thank you for the Bryston recommendation -- I did not know about that site. At one time, I had a Bryston 5-channel amp. My only concern is that it was not powerful enough to run my center channel at the time (VMPS RM30C) to full volume, and I had to use two amps from the Bryston to biamp the speaker. Then channels started dying, one-by-one, and I threw it away. (This was an amp made by Bryston, but sold under a different name; I forget the original name, but it didn't have the super long warranty.) That amp has me anti-Bryston.
That Outlaw audio amp was $300/each yesterday and is $400/each today. The Jeff Rowland was BK (before kids) and BW (before wife), and now I'll need to pass everything through the wife.