Tube Amp Suggestions

Ozzy62, I have no doubt that with the cultist mentality that Didactically displays, he would have been the first one in line to gulp down a cup of Kool-Aid at Jonestown!

An interesting thread indeed and I'm sure the original poster ,Sgunther, really appreciates the squabble ;-) but I feel I MUST put in my two cents.
I can appreciate the opinions of Didactically as I have a friend who feels the same way. He is an engineer who is an audiophile and looks a lot at the figures represented by manuf. specs and does not feel that tubes can possibly portray a sonic duplicate of the actual event.I can agree with this as I'm sure many can.
However neither can solid state. The whole industry is flawed from source(studio) to final destination (our ears!). I'm sure that if all recordings were made the same there would not be the audio industry we have today. Certainly not the variety of equipment. It's obvious that nobody hears exactly the same and what we do hear is some form of generalization of the sonic event. The only thing we can do is tailor the sound to be pleasing to ourselves whether through the use of tubes or SS. If accuracy was the true goal there really would only be a handfull of recordings we could listen to as most of the sonic garbage starts at the studio.
I recently went from SS (Ayre) to tube (ARC) and the difference in sound is vastly different. My wife and I both enjoyed the ARC in more ways than we did the Ayre. Not that the Ayre is bad, I'm sure that many people would enjoy it more BUT to OUR ears the ARC simply sounded more pleasing. I won't use the word accurate on either amp as I never attended the original studio event for anything in my CD or vinyl collection so I have no point of refrence to grade playback against. The ARC was just more satisfying and friendly. The tubes may be colored and introduce thier own signature to the sound but it is more pleasing than the nature of solid state, but hey, it keeps me listening to the music.
I hope one day soon to hear the Linkwitz speakers as I think it represents new steps towards music reproduction. I also hope it colors the music in a way that is pleasing to the ear!

Why do you care what I think, or even whether I think, and why are you so angry? I know it does not have anything to do with me.

You also sound like the President. If you challenge what he thinks you are not patriotic. To critique a Republican does not make you a Liberal, or anything else.

Lets discuss 'audio'. That is why we are here, is it not? Otherwise call Dr Phil. He can help you with your personal problems.

You guys are relentless. And angry. Like that has anything to do with me.

Spoken like a true 'connoisseur of coloration'. An eloquent justification.

'The power of suggestion works exceedingly well, when listeners cannot trust their own hearing. I recommend to re-calibrate yourself frequently. Listen closely to all sorts of un-amplified sounds in order to recognize and remember natural aural patterns. It becomes an endless and futile pursuit to listen for and try to evaluate differences between speakers, equipment and accessories without a reality based mental reference.' (SL)