Describe ube sound vs solid state

"What always amazes me is people buy exorbitantly priced tube gear, and the first thing they do is roll the tubes:)...like the designer got it wrong>"

Not that he got it wrong, just that the realities of modern production require readily available current production tubes, smaller boutique brands excepted. Some feel tubes from the heyday offer better quality.

This thread seems to ignore the fact that tube amps are more fun. There is no question that good SS amps can, and do, sound fine or often great, but comparisons aside, you generally don't "Transistor Roll" to effect some tonal change because you feel like it...many don't feel like it anyway, and should stick to SS amps...my enjoyment of tube hifi is partly due to the fact that I can see the glow and mess with it for fun...although recent tube purchases are of tubes that don't glow as visibly so there's that, but I still have Mullard Flash for entertainment. SS amps just sit there doing their job invisibly, and except for meters (Pass...good idea) there's no tactile sign of life. Also, I think you can get to some great tone for less cash quicker with a good tube amp, but then I like fun.

I agree. Ube's are fun. I like listening to my system with my ubes and roasting a marshmellow on an open gamma wave from a ube. I also buy old ubes and like to put them in to see them arc up and down the glass. It is like a science fiction movie in my own man cave. And then in the summer I go down in my room in my scivies and bask in the warm(maybe I should say real warm)wafting waves of heat pretending to be in an Russian sauna box. Ubes are killer fun. I have to go now and start drying my clothes on my ubes before I go to bed tonight.

Tubes do make it more of an occasion

Agree with Wolfy ... ube amps are more fun. Look at how much I have been obsessing about KT-150 ubes for my amp. And how often do ube amps blow bias resisters. I say go ube ... all the way. Good ight.