from solid state to tube

i just compared my little dared vp16 to two ss amps; a hopped up hafler and and beefed up odyssey. the little guy made more music in ea. case

ss is nice in the bass. too bad the music lies elsewhere.

i did have a lot more trouble distinquishing the ss from the tube equip this yr. at the rmaf. last yr. i could walk in a room and immediately tell the difference.

are tubes more hassle. yes. are they worth it? i am sure you get more bang for your buck with the tubes.

There was an article in Stereophile magazine not too far back and the reviewer in question was astonished at the resurgence of interest in tube gear, stating that the solid state gear of today is far superior. My personal opinion is that if your satisfied with soft music only, all tube may be the way to go. Could find satisfaction using a combination of both. I don't want to be locked into a system that only sounds good with audiophile music. Whatever choices you make, "Keep listening to them tunes!"

I've always moved both tube and SS into and out of my systems and IMHO the differences are becomming a lot less obvious. I think SS is very, very good these days.
Examples (which I am listening to now) are the ASR Emitter, the new TRL st225 and the DNM PA3S...three very different designs that all seem to get the beats right.

The designer of the Tonian Lab TLM-1's that I recently sold voiced these 97db 16 ohm speakers with SS amps and they (Tonian's) sound truly marvelous with the right SS amps (as well as with tubes)

System matching and synergy and dealing with the room are, IMO, much more important issues these days to sound quality than if it is Tube or SS.

Why not have the best of both?

I use a tube preamp with a SS amp in my home system. Get the great SS definition, clarity, bass, impact, transient response while also getting a naturally rich timbre and liquidity of tubes - all in one.

I use a Bada PH12 single ended Class A, OTL tube/MosFets hybrid headphone amp that does the same thing - the best of both solid state and tubes.

It doesn't get any better, believe me.

A recent rotation of various speakers through my system has been an eye opener re: power needed and voice in relation to SS vs Tube. A small pair of power hungry monitors can sound excellent with tubes, while the SS amp will cause them to sing with more dynamics but lose other attributes. Switching to various sets of more efficient (and also much larger physically) speakers demonstrated that even low power tube can fill the room to concert sound. The bottom line may be to find the speakers you want to drive and go from there. The 100db efficiency Altecs lay waste to the 86 db Dynaudios for brute strength and room filling dynamics- even when pushed with a watt or two, but for low level late night mesmerizing, the little monitors are tough to beat based on detail and image of sound, they just need the few more fractions of watts to hit the sound level needed. The bottom line is I've been from tubes to SS and back to tubes AND SS, and tubes... and SS ...and