Why do tubed preamps image better than SS?

Eldartford-

Staying OT, the thread is about preamps not amplifiers...

But since you brought it up, the fact that certain transformer coupled amplifiers oscillate with high feedback is of no particular concern to me- but I'm guessing that you knew that :)

Atmasphere...
I will stay on thread.
I will stay on thread.
I will stay on thread.
I will stay on thread.
I will stay on thread.
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etc...

Anything is possible as long as it comes with price tag. For the $$, majority of tube gear will have better bang for the buck performance over SS

Tubes do not image "better" than SS only differently. Tubes often expand the soundstage because of microphonics but lack focus and coherency for the same reason. They, like ill-placed subwoofers are sometimes nothing more than subtle "reverb" units. SS on the other hand seems to convey the inadequacies of recorded sound all too vigorously, but often with seductive immediacy. Looks like a match made in Heaven, don't you think?

my understanding is this:

tubes 'distort' differently than SS (and EVERYTHING distorts. it is just, how, and to what extent, how/if you can perceive it, etc) - something to the effect of the distortion being in phase w/ the output?

therefore, when it comes to sound stage / detail (which is typically, at least in my mind / ears, derived from the highs/mids) if you are distorting in a more 'pleasing' manor, you will 'hear' better imaging.