Is pure class A ss the equal to tubes?

NO!!! Class A SS is definitely not equal to tubes. They are decidedly different in basically every case. Your preference may be for one or the other and will depend on your system (yada yada)...

Usual disclosure aside, I find that, if your speakers are efficient enough, nothing conveys the true power and emotion of a musical experience like a tube amp - more preferably SET and I find an altogether more natural sound that is closer to reality (at least in my system, listening material, yada yada yada...)

-j

The primary difference between most solid state (including Class A) and tubes is the distortion each puts out. Solid state tends to put out mainly 3rd order harmonic distortion while tubes put out mostly 2nd order and some 4th order harmonic distortion. 3rd order distortion does not sound good at all. 2nd and 4th order distortion puts a musical sonic signature on sound that most solid state (class A or otherwise) do not produce.

Thus, it is impossible to equate the sound of most solid state (Class A or not) with tubes. Tubes add distortion (which can be very musical). This may sound like a bad thing... but remember that the distortion that any of your components (or any of them put together) do not even come close to the distortion added by your loundspeakers.

A famous Hollywood personality once said, "The Real World may not look like technicolor, but it should." I personally think that Real World Music may not sound like tubes, but it absolutely should!

KF

Oh Tok2000, what a romantic thou art! :)

I might have to change the shade of my rose colored glasses, as I may not be reading this thread correctly, you know, with the yellow background and all.

Hey, I was into tubes for years (for about 10 years I wouldn't consider anything else) and still like them. They are most beguiling to the innocent. I just got tired of the microphonic problems, the constant tube rolling and tube replacement, and their relatively unreliable and inconsistant nature in general. And good tubes ain't exactly cheap anymore.

Now that some companies are producing better sounding solid state designs I see no reason to return to the problems and continual disappointments of tube amps. They almost always soften the bass, and the high frequencies, and although they can sound nice in the midrange, so can good solid state. My hybrid amps use one input tube per channel and that's all the euphony (2nd and 4th order distortion) I presently require, thank you very much. :)