If I'm looking for "Tube Sound", why would I put a Tube Pre in front of a SS amp?

Atmasphere I cannot explain why but I have also found good modern Class D amplifiers to not be "irritating" as well as some of the others you identify.

I’ve owned and heard some other SS amps as well that qualify.

Maybe the non irritating amp club has some other perhaps more anonymous or lesser known members these days?

Pass and Curl may be the trailblazers but it seems others have practically followed in their path in one way or another.

Nobody wants to buy an irritating amp that I know of so designers who do would have to be considered lacking if others have proven it possible. I’d hire someone else to design my amps for me if my guy did not do things "right".

Whatever the technical details my ears clearly tell me tube amps do not have the good sound market cornered these days even if perhaps that was true to a greater extent in the not so recent past.

@mapman I've regarded the Class D technology as a sort of rising star. I've yet to hear one that beats a good tube amp in my system but I've not heard them all by any means. I use a class D amp in my keyboard setup in my band and it works pretty well- better than the traditional solid state amp I used before- I get what you say about not having the same artifacts.

However that seems to play to my point which is to use a tube preamp and a solid state (class D) amp rather than the other way around. Is anyone making a class D preamp yet? A quick google search didn't find any examples.

Atmashere, Nelson Pass and John Curl are not the best SS designers in the world. You forgot Rasmussen of Gryphon and also some other European designers. Besides, Vladimir Shushurin of Lamm makes hybrid power amps that are in essense SS.
You keep making incorrect statements from time to time.

Atmasphere I have ARC tube pre-amp and Bel Canto ref1000m amps in my main system and newer BelCanto c5i digital Class D integrated amp in my second. They each sound quite different. The c5i in particular is smooth as silk with no edge or irritation whatsoever even when used with my Dynaudio monitors which can have a bit of a natural edge to them. The only fault I can find with it is the 60 watts do well but only go so far. It’s a fabulous device in a small reasonably affordable package overall.  Also has phono and serves well as a headphone amp with similar qualities. 

Inna 9-28-2016
Atmashere, Nelson Pass and John Curl are not the best SS designers in the world. You forgot Rasmussen of Gryphon and also some other European designers. Besides, Vladimir Shushurin of Lamm makes hybrid power amps that are in essense SS.
You keep making incorrect statements from time to time.

Inna, note that he didn’t say "the best SS designers in the world." He said "two OF THE BEST solid state designers in the world" [emphasis added]. IMO that categorization is indisputable, and is not negated by the fact that many of their designs were intentionally implemented to a lower price point than most or all of the products of the other manufacturers you mentioned.

Regards,
-- Al