Any good reasons to use transistor phono stage and line level preamp instead of tube ?

I had been using an Audio Research phonoamp and was reasonably happy with the open airy vibrant appeal of tubes. Now I have always used Klipsh Cornwall’s and  have never been left wanting. Until a friend was upgrading his system and he had offered me a loan of his Plinius 14 phono. I was very impressed specially in bass response, needless say I am still using it on a permanent basis. Now I do have a tube pre amp that the Plinius is connected to. The bass region is just great with just as much openness and staging.

I have tube monoblocks and a tube preamp (Conrad Johnson), but went for a solid state phono stage (Pass Labs XP-15).  For me, it strikes the best balance of price/performance and gives me a sound that I really like.  Space is a bit of a consideration, along with limiting the number of tubes I need to stock or worry about getting.  But, I have had my CJ tube gear for a year and a half, and have only had to change a couple of KT120's along the way.  I have found the CJ amps and preamp to be very easy on tubes, and I have at least 500 hours on the gear by now.

Happy searching, matching and listening.

yogiboy, good article, thanks for the link.  I especially liked this passage:

The problem, Hansen believes, is that people are too fixated on the gear and not enough on the experience the gear is supposed to provide. “Don’t be thinking about how the treble or bass sounds, or this or that detail, the ‘soundstaging,’” he counsels. “None of that matters. After the song is over, ask yourself, ‘Was I completely sucked in? Did I forget about everything else?’ Or were you thinking about the bills you need to pay, the deadline on this article. If you can get completely lost in the music, then it’s a really good stereo system. It doesn’t matter if it’s tubes, transistors, or a hamster on wheel. All that matters is that you got lost in the music. If you’re listening to music and your system doesn’t do that for you, your system is broken.”

I have all solid state (Bryston amp and preamp) and my system does the above for me. Right now I'm listening to "Man in the Wilderness" Natalie Merchant from Leave Your Sleep.  Its wonderful!

Im with bigkidz, I have always found good tube gear to image and soundstage better, more 3D. 

I have solid state (Whest PS30RDT) and valve (inbuilt Atmasphere MP-3) phono stages.
The Whest is dead quiet, very smooth, detailed, has a huge soundstage, and layers like crazy. It does big stuff incredibly well, and is my go to for rock, electronic, classical.
The Atmasphere is definitely noisier (faint valve rush at low volumes) but once the music is playing it's not noticeable. And its not quite as controlled on the really big stuff. But it has a texture and grit that I find more lifelike, and is simply gorgeous on smaller scale, acoustic, jazz, and human voice.

I love them both and use them both. But if forced to decide on one, I think I'd go for ...... nah, not telling :-)