Solid State vs. Tubes - What if Transistors came first?


What do you guys think?

If transistors came first, and then decades later tubes were invented, would we have any tube amps we would call high end?

Wouldn’t they all fail to reach the height of performance and transparency set by transistor amps?

Best,

E

P.S. I love Conrad Johnson. I'm just wondering how  much of our arguments have to do with timing. 
erik_squires
So the conclusion is, if we had transistors first, then all tube amps would be trying to be as good as transistors? :) 
Tubes, in my view, are a waste of time and money, but it is a hobby....
This is a good question and I suspect that people would just be used to whatever came first (at least for some time). Tubes would have to match transistors, I think. But really, if we had transistors, there's a good chance tubes would have never been used/invented.
Sort of funny, I think. For most of us transistors did come first! Then there was the tube 'Renaissance'. Wonder why anyone was interested if  transistors were so good? :-)

I can remember trucking SS amps home to match my Thiels, amp after amp after amp. My back still hurts. Then I got an ARC SP 10 and a Threshold SA3.  It worked just fine. Only took me five years to get the issues solved. Thank god for the tubes. I just sold that old pre a few years ago at a profit, no less.