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


What do you guys think?

If transistors came first, and then decades later tubes were invented, would we have any tube amps we would call high end?

Wouldn’t they all fail to reach the height of performance and transparency set by transistor amps?

Best,

E

P.S. I love Conrad Johnson. I'm just wondering how  much of our arguments have to do with timing. 
erik_squires
Perhaps I stated my case inadequately.  What I was inferring was that power conditioning per se can dramatically alter the resultant sound from a SS amp/device.  Tube gear does respond to power quality as well, but does not seem to change its predominant characteristics to the same degree.  I’ve owned a lot of both types over the years.  Just my experience.
QUESTION: Solid State vs. Tubes - What if Transistors came first?

ANSWER: We would have listened to solid state glare for a much longer period of time.

Thanks for listening,

Dsper
I thought that way as well dspr, but recent SS offerings such as my Krell Vanguard really has none of those typical artifacts.  In fact, the last tube preamp I tried from ARC injected just that sort of glare you would equate with SS.  There are obviously ways to offer musical performance in both designs, but just because something is tube based, does not require it to be musical or lacking warts.
Now that I think more about it, the tube preamp has a closely regulated power supply AND when I used standard 6X5GT rectifiers the preamp didn't sound all that good, I put in a Bendix 5852 and it sounded much better. Additionally, I used a couple of UF4007s and it sounded fine as well but a tube rectifier allows for a slow turn on, resulting in longer tube life, I'd have to add a delay circuit in order to use SS diodes all the time.