Anyone has a reference system where amplification is SS ?

What kind of music do you mostly listen to ?

@inna

everything. i graduated from High School in 1969, so i’m first a 60’s and 70’s rock guy and do listen to that some. but i’ve grown over the last 30 years to love jazz and classical. and over time i now listen to 70% classical, 20% jazz.

lots of string quartets, piano trios, solo piano, large orchestral. recently was on a Mahler kick. all types of jazz but love the golden age and like mono pressings too. my system can do full justice to large scale music. that’s where the tubes can’t compete with my darTZeel. they are not linear and can’t do scale without distortion. tube amplification can be excellent, but in direct compare to the darts their shortcomings are exposed. their non musical tubey-ness gets pushed at you. the dart’s just keep going. and the darTZeel 468’s are tonally dense and rich, great textures and flow. and a very smooth and extended top end. not like typical solid state. the darts are musically rich and supple. grain less and liquid.

visitors to my room are not aware they are listening to solid state or tubes, there is no signature for either.....just.....music.

i do lots of high rez streaming, have about 20 Tb of files, 4000 CD’s and SACD’s (now ripped to files), 12,000 records, and 250 reel to reel albums mostly 2 reels each.

Sure - my old reference system had a Classe DR7 preamp feeding two bridged Classe DR3 VHC monos, running mids and highs, two mono PSE V running bass, in Vandersteen 4a speakers.  Liked it so much that is remains my second system 

@inna 

"Affection". Hardly.

I think a more appropriate word in this context might be "affectation".

Maybe you should let us see what you listen to on top of your mountain. It might help me understand your elitist point of view.

Tubes = distortion + noise.

They do not belong in a reference system. 

Tubes = distortion + noise.

They do not belong in a reference system. 

@helomech 

not all tube amps are created equal, and not all listeners have the same system aspirations, not all rooms are the same size, and not all speakers need the same power. so dismissing tubes for a reference system is not right either.

if you consider an OTL circuit, then you are much more linear by eliminating the transformer. if you have a medium to small-ish sized room but love small combo jazz and small scale classical, then plenty of tube amps can be reference quality. if you use 105+ db efficient horns then all sorts of tube amps can be reference quality.

so even with the theory of greater noise and greater distortion (a theory) tube amps can certainly be great.

OTOH in a large room and expectations for full frequency and state of the art linearity on large scale music tube amps will struggle to keep up. could be done. OTOH with darTZeel i know it can be done and not have to live with solid state restrictions in musicality.