Why do Tube Amps sound more romantic v SS amps

I have heard that most speaker designs are built to deal with solid-state amplifiers. Add that buying a tube amp does not flourish with modern day speakers.  Wish I could recall specifics as to why this is.  Maybe someone else does.

I have heard that most speaker designs are built to deal with solid-state amplifiers. Add that buying a tube amp does not flourish with modern day speakers. Wish I could recall specifics as to why this is. Maybe someone else does.

When you see 4 ohm nominal speakers with average to low efficiency (~90dB a Watt and below) - yeah, those are more likely to have been designed for SS. It’s not that tube amps can’t handle 4 ohms, it’s just the practical matter that most SS amps significantly increase their rated power output when you go from 8 ohm to 4 ohm loads. Tube amps have a hard time keeping up with that (tube Watts are NOT more powerful than SS Watts), so if the speaker maker knows his market he’s probably going to design more with SS in mind.

Baloney to a couple of posts here...there are plenty of inexpensive tube amps out there that I’d wager are far superior in every way to cheap SS amps...I owned a Jolida 502 tube power amp for years and it sounded magnificent relative to some well regarded SS amps I’d owned...my bought used but 3 month old Dennis Had single ended pentode tube amp is world class...got it a few years ago for 1100 bucks or so. Also, your speakers don’t know what kind of amp they’re getting and unless they’re very inefficient they’ll likely sound great with even an inexpensive tube amp, relative to mediocre SS. My original version Schiit Freya preamp allows bypassing the tubes (no other preamp I know of does this) which I find useful simply to see if the tubes are wearing out, which is a good thing. I currently rotate my Had amp with a brilliant Pass XA-25 and both are astonishingly good and surprisingly similar in tone since Nelson Pass likes his Class A amps to be "tube like."

I have heard in an extremely expensive system, through £75 000 Speakers Soulution Amplification, and a Very Expensive 211 Valve Power Amp design.

Along with these in the same day od demonstrations I have been demonstrated DIY OTL Amps, a DIY SS Monoblock Amp which was Two Power Supplies and Two Output Modules and a Monoblock Design of a DIY Built Neurochrome Amp.

Each was able to impress in the system, some were noticeably different, but were able to present very well due to the Speakers matching very well.

From recollection for the Money and Performance on offer, the Neurochrome won the day, it was hard to suggest the Soulution Power Amp's were a better performance, using the limited time for each demo'.

I have been demonstrated a selection of DIY Built Neurochrome Amp's since, from the lowest powered model to the maximum powered model. These are extremely competent and have my full endorsement. I have even suggested they may become my retired years when I put the Valve Amp's in the System to bed for good.