silver with tubes and copper with solid state ??

My experience is it solely depends on your specific equipment and not particularly the generalization of solid state versus tube. I have 2 pair of Acoustic Zen Absolute Reference II IC's (copper/silver blend) running in my system now and I am borderline satisfied with it. It's a bit too bright so not sure I'll stay with the AZs.

Thing is, these same ICs were PERFECT with my prior amp (a Musical Fidelity A308 Integrated, solid state). Everything else was conastant (Benchmark DAC, Shunyata cords and conditioner, etc.).

That's quite a coincidence I had a MF 308 for years and found it to screechy for my taste. I tried everything I could afford in cables and no matter what I used it didn't work out in my rig. I think the rig will supercede the cable. Therefore buy the cheapest rat shack stuff you can find. Then spend all the money you saved on component upgrades.

That is kinda funny. I thought the 308 was beautiful in hindsight, but I didn't want to have an integrated plus a multi channel in my setup. Never seen something sell so fast as that 308 did though, it was gone in 4 hours after I listed it.

I've demoed an Anthem Statement A5 at home, owned an Outlaw 7100 and now this Sunfire TGA5200. None of the aforementioned are truly the be all/end all in amps, but a few aren't slouches either. The A308 was incredible, although it took the right cables. I tried Cardas Golden Crosses which were intolerably bright with it (and I hear their supposed to be warm....I didn't thing so anyways), but the AZs were just perfect. It wasn't as picky with power cords or conditioning as the Sunfire. Wonder if that's because it was choke regulated?

Everyone has different tastes so it's just a matter of trying different ones till you like what you hear.

It all comes down to synergy.

I have one SS rig that uses Goertz AG2(silver) and is far from bright due to all warm components. Meanwhile, in my tube rig, I use copper cables due to a bright source.

As mentioned before, it all comes down to what sounds the best to you.

Like some of the others, I too have a hodge podge. I'm currently using Cardas Golden Reference phono cable (copper), Ridge Street Poiema 3 interconnect (silver), JPS Superconductor 3 speaker cable (copper coated aluminum and copper) and Ridge Street Poiema 3 Signature power cord (silver). And I'm getting a detailed, dynamic, musical, you-are-there, no glare, free of fatigue sound. My electronics are tubed: EAR 88pb phono preamp and modified Air Tight ATM-3 monoblocks.