Tubes tend to produce signals which are fatter/rounder and smoother when they are driven. Do note that these are just signals we're talking about, it is the speakers and cabinets (the box the speakers are housed in) that produce the sound.
I wouldn't say ingnore tubes completely but at your given budget, its not advisible to obtain a full tube as good tube amps usually cost much more.
I also wouldn't be too quick to dismiss solidstate amps as inferior to tube amps. Today, there have been much improvement in emulating technologies and desgins such that solidstates actually sound "tubish". These are more cost efficient and thus should be what you are looking for given the budget. There are also hybrid amps in which there is one or two tubes added to the pre-gain of an amp while the post-gain is pure solidstate.
At the end of the day, it is good amps you want, not a tube amp or a solidstate amp or a hybrid. Nobody gives a damn on whether you are playing which amp cause the only thing that will be telling is the sound thats coming out. With your budget in consideration, try to go around testing amps and get the one you think sound best objectively.
What we can help you out is to give you some recommendations and some facts such as larger speakers = more complete sounds. Watts is not a real priority because you need a 100 watt amp to go twice as loud as a 10 watt amp. You can do some research and articles on these either here on soft or some other websites.
The Laney LX65R/D are solidstate amps but they produce fairly good sounds due to the larger cones. Do hear the sound samples onlline and try them out first and compare them with others in your wish list. No point hurrying in getting your first amp.
