Tube Amp soundstage

Well said. If we trace this all the way back to its roots we find at its heart a twisted desire to place what we can measure above what we actually experience. Everyone but everyone actually experiences the superior lifelike depth and quality of tubes. But when we measure them we see the (totally arbitrary) few things we are able to measure seem to measure better even though the amps that measure better wound worse. So we have to go through the 80’s amplifier wars and the 90’s CD and now streaming. All the while anyone with two ears can hear tubes and records beat the pants off digital and solid state.

There’s technical reasons for this but seeing as its technical mumbo jumbo that got us in this fix in the first place you can be darn sure I’m not going down that rabbit hole. No one ever beats a measurebator at tech talk word salad. Learned that lesson long ago.

I will however offer one slightly technical reason. Those of us doing this a while tend to notice simpler is better. Every single tiny little thing affects the signal, and so the more of them there are the more they must be the absolute highest quality. Pop the cover off any two SS and tube amps, the tubes are almost always hands down the simpler circuit with the fewest components. Quality matters more than quantity, and so for any given budget the fewer the parts the more you can afford to spend per part. It really is that simple.

Because I’m a valve person, I have to be honest with you. Well I don’t have to be, but I’m gonna be. :-)

Sweet EL34s, plump KT88, and the all time best 6L6 (I think)

The distortion the valves offer, are the perfect form of chaos when they are done right. The wrong part, that valves ADD, according to a scope, are that "Mojo" you (and I) like.. The imperfect, becomes "Perfect".
I also think that’s why it sounds "THICHER", more of it....

I have heard low watt SS that could get pretty darn close to that perfect, imperfection. A lot of the Pass designs, and their influence on design, put a big smile on my face... The old Adcom, Threshold, First Watt, and Pass. Mark Ls, in a class of their own.. MHO

If I want surgical, clinical , sterile, Krell and a few others come to mind.

Class D, All together different, but they have a good place for me, and my gear...

Regards

The distortion the valves offer, are the perfect form of chaos when they are done right.  

There is a reason for this. Tubes, and analog devices in general, tend to the same even order harmonics that are so prevalent in nature. Everything from violins and drums to tambourines and human voices is chock full of even order harmonics. So when a tube amp adds even a few percent of even order harmonics our brains easily blend it into one seamless whole. 

Solid state and digital however are not at all like this. The distortions they produce are far lower in magnitude, that is true. But we are so much more sensitive to unnatural odd-order harmonics that this seems not to matter. We hear it as more, even while we measure it as less. 

Tubes made the music sound as it should. Christmas tree lights were thread-in incandescent bulbs. The Mistletoe was fresh, as you'd try to be after too much (homemade) eggnog.

+1 oldhvymech