Why do Tube Amps sound more romantic v SS amps

Talk about beating a dead horse. How many discussions have there been between solid state vs. tubes. Belt vs. direct drive. Moving coil vs. moving iron.

There are no hard fast rules. It all depends on the design and build quality. And personal preference.

Tubes in my mind are more for equipment hobbyists who like to experiment without changing boxes. And don't mind the heat/increased AC bill.

I had SS for decades. Then a buddy brought over a tube amp for me to try in the rig. The difference was like night and day. Even my wife, who really doesn’t care that much, commented on how much better the tube amp sounded.

The last couple of years I’ve had four different tube amps in my rig. Two that friends have let me try and two that I’ve purchased. They are in order: Prima Luna Dialogue One integrated, Dynaco ST-70 power, Prima Luna EVO400 power, NAT Audio 805 Generator mono blocks.

@vuch 

+1

Partner doesn’t care about my system… it is my thing… but she instantly liked tubes when I put them in my system (women typically have much better hearing than males and are very sensitive to high frequency distortion). 
 

Once I moved to tubes in a component, there has been no going back.

The advantage of tubes.

1. When you have a sound change because of worn drivers or outputs you pop in a new tube and presto, like a new amp. 

2. You can change the sound for your new speakers by changing tubes. For me trading out the EL34s for KT77s was a large improvement in sound. 

3. The tube preamp tubes can also change the sound as well to taylor and component matching.

Tube vs transistor sound is personal taste as far as what you like in sound and the differences between them. Both are great depending on how it is matched with the components you have. Enjoy both!