"...a little bit of microphony can be a good thing, and is probably one of the reasons we all like tubes"
Re-reading my post from eight years ago in light of the above-referenced comment, I feel compelled to say that for precisely that reason, among others, I don't use tubes anymore (for hifi that is -- guitar amps, always). After several years I grew tired of usually being able to "hear the tubes" to some degree when listening to recorded music, especially at realistic volumes. And I found that tubes are no longer necessary (in addition to putting up with their waste heat, replacement costs, inconvenient and occasionally catastrophic failures, and higher noise) in order to get lively, flowing, open, naturally consonant sound, including musically convincing bass. On top of its inherent advantages over tubes, good solid-state achieved parity in those regards a while ago IMO.
