Solid State vs. Tubes - What if Transistors came first?

<brayeagleerik wrote:  ". . . Peter Walker’s conclusion was that all well-designed amps operated below clipping will sound the same."

A Peter Azcel posit? (The Audio Critic)>

You can also add Alan Shaw (Harbeth) to that already esteemed list.

However, Ken Rockwell back in 2015 posted a technically logical explanation why tube amps are often preferred.

https://kenrockwell.com/audio/why-tubes-sound-better.htm

Pseudoscience, speculation and conjecture, sprinkled with subjective horse poop. 

Tubes are dead. Lee Deforest, somewhere in the Lake of Boiling Bloid. 

One thing Peter Walker didn’t have the good sense to do was produce the Quads without that abominable looking and horrible sounding rattletrap of a metal grating on the front and back of the speakers. I mean, come on, people!  No wonder he thought all amps sound the same.

I simply don't understand how one can conclude that dragging a diamond through a plastic trough doesn't cause wear. It defies logic, physics, and study.

It does wear, but takes a *lot* longer than the studies done in the early 1960s concluded (which are the studies most often cited in this regard). A lot has happened with cartridges and tone arm tech since then!! Most audiophiles I know don't listen to any one title long enough to actually wear it out; IMO this just simply isn't an issue.

There are ways to get clipping characteristics out of a transistor that are similar to a tube. It's just not done often.

The way to do it is to use SITs (Static Induction Transistors) aka VFETs. They have linearity similar to triodes and do have a soft clipping characteristic. They are the only such devices that have these properties other than real triodes. The problem is no-one makes them anymore, and further, no-one ever made driver and low level signal versions- just outputs. They've not been made since the late 70s or early 80s. The industry doesn't want to make linear devices anymore- everything is 'switching' to switching. That's why class D is on the rise.