Solid states more accurate than tubes?

I thought the question was which is more accurate in reproducing not creating. The artist   and associatiated technicians creates, we simply try to reproduce what they created. In order to be faithful to that creation then accuracy is paramount. If I don't care for the creation then I can color it with distortion or tone controls that's my decision. But to answer the original question which is more accurate solid state or tubes in reproducing I would say solid state. 

Well, it dependes on what SS and tube amp you are comparing and your personal taste. 

My 300B 805 tube amp (48 wpc) has about 1% THD vs 0.0001% on my Class D amp (400 wpc), both very rewarded among audiophiles. Guess what, I prefer by a WIDE margin the tube amp. Much more real, 3D soundstage, grip, balls, tone and dynamic sound. 

I agree 100% with @jjss49 when he says above "we are painting a watercolour here, not fastidiously documenting an actual event". 

we are painting a watercolour here, not fastidiously documenting an actual event".

That might be what you’re doing but the original question was not how can I paint a watercolor but which device REPRODUCES the original more ACCURATE. If you have 1% THD then you’re not reproducing the original but coloring it with distortion and that’s fine if that’s your goal but it’s not answering the OP question of Accuracy it's just offering your preference.

Buy a Pathos or Rouge Audio Sphinx and have the best of both worlds with a hybrid design.

i will never go back to 100% ss. 

The problem here is what solid state amp vs what tube amp.

And this has everything to do with Gain Bandwidth Product, which is a factor that can limit how much feedback an amplifier has. For this reason, IMO traditional solid state amps are not more accurate, as nearly all of them in the last 60 years have been brighter and harsher than real life.

But tube amps also have insufficient Gain Bandwidth Product; what has saved them and why they are still around so many decades after being declared ’obsolete’ is that they tend to make lower ordered harmonic distortion, which is fairly inaudible to the human ear, as opposed to the higher ordered harmonic distortion of solid state.

OTOH if you can get enough gain bandwidth product, then it is possible to build a solid state amp that finally has enough feedback, such that at higher frequencies distortion is still controlled. In terms of traditional solid state amps you can count on one hand the amps that have succeeded in this way- the Benchmark amp appears to one of them. There are also class D amps that do too- because its relatively easy to get gain with class D and you don’t have to worry if the amp goes into oscillation- in fact in a class D amp, that would be something that you want!


Its this oscillation issue that is why prior amp designs have had insufficient feedback: add too much and the amp will go into oscillation at some frequency, owing to the phase margins of the amp being exceeded. Because that generally isn’t a good behavior on the part of an amp, lessor amounts of feedback are used to promote stability. But that means the amp won’t have enough feedback at higher frequencies and so it will sound harsh. But nevermind, many manufacturers have a simple solution for that called ’lying’.


This is why feedback has gotten a bad rap (I’ve not yet mentioned that its application results in distortion as well; see the writings of Norman Crowhurst from 50 years ago...). A pragmatic designer might instead build an amp with no feedback at all, generally designing so it makes the distortion that is relatively inaudible and doesn’t make the distortion that is. At least that way you avoid the gain bandwidth issue! And there are ways to minimize distortion without feedback; some zero feedback amps have some pretty impressive distortion figures.

So it really does make a difference of which amps you’re talking about; ignoring all this simply means that the blanket statement

Solid states more accurate than tubes?

is simply false and nothing for it.