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

Perhaps I stated my case inadequately.  What I was inferring was that power conditioning per se can dramatically alter the resultant sound from a SS amp/device.  Tube gear does respond to power quality as well, but does not seem to change its predominant characteristics to the same degree.  I’ve owned a lot of both types over the years.  Just my experience.

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

ANSWER: We would have listened to solid state glare for a much longer period of time.

Thanks for listening,

Dsper

I thought that way as well dspr, but recent SS offerings such as my Krell Vanguard really has none of those typical artifacts.  In fact, the last tube preamp I tried from ARC injected just that sort of glare you would equate with SS.  There are obviously ways to offer musical performance in both designs, but just because something is tube based, does not require it to be musical or lacking warts.

Now that I think more about it, the tube preamp has a closely regulated power supply AND when I used standard 6X5GT rectifiers the preamp didn't sound all that good, I put in a Bendix 5852 and it sounded much better. Additionally, I used a couple of UF4007s and it sounded fine as well but a tube rectifier allows for a slow turn on, resulting in longer tube life, I'd have to add a delay circuit in order to use SS diodes all the time.

Hi dave_b,

Your point is well taken.

I replaced my Coda CS amp with a McCormack DNA-500 driving Thiel CS5's and the glare went away, plus I picked up more nuance and texture. Another vote for taking the journey to find more synergistic  components! 

Thanks for listening,

Dsper