From tubes back to SS?

@prof That's a great story---I have found that many CJ owners are quite loyal to the brand. I've never owned anything in the audio world that's as hi-end as a CJ or LTA. The closest I've ever come to that was Canton speakers, Nakamichi and B & O back in the 80s. As I'm slowly upgrading my system, I'm hearing things I've never heard before---why did I wait so long?! It's great getting back into the music again. 

From my experience, all of the 6SN7 tubes I've tried had hiss.

They do, but you probably just had bad luck. We use 6SN7s in everything we make and no worries playing them on high sensitivity loudspeakers. My speakers at home are 97.5dB 1 watt/1 meter, and no hiss.

@prof I had the same experience when I tried to use an SUT instead of going direct-in on my phono setup. The SUT was certainly quiet, but I found myself not playing the stereo anymore. When I got the SUT out of the system, right away my interest came back.

I have tried countless 6SN7's, NOS, new, chinese, boutique, russian etc. no hiss at all (the 6H8C Melz are the exception, it is a noisy tube but that is the exception to the rule)

I tried a couple of times, but always found solid-state insufficient to my tastes.  Classical music has to be tubes, some people say jazz too but I don't listen to jazz.  Rock can be anything, it doesn't matter so much.

@mrearl I finally got a tube preamp and so far I'm loving the sound with the SS amp. There definitely was a difference once I switched out my integrated. I finally get the whole 'tube' thing.