Focal 1038be or Revel Ultima Salon 2?

yes you can run tubes, need to be Arc monos, Rogue monos, or something similar . You could also bi-amp with tubes on the top and solid state on the bass, have your cake and eat it too. As long as it has lots of power you dont have to spend lots of dough on a solid state amp either, something like a parasound A 23 would drive the hell out of the bass drivers, also I highly recommend the Dspeaker dual core room dsp correction to eq the bass, you will be in hog heaven. The Salons are worth all of this, set up correctly they can out perform most speakers out there, and be a end game speaker for you.

The salon 2 is Not the best sounding speaker ever made though it is a nimble performer with lots of power to feed it.. it's a rock and roller, sounds a bit metallic as all its diaphragms are mostly metal..For a big bad rock speaker they're great! for throaty female voices, 3 dimensional acoustic strings, double bass, non synthesized music, there is a sea of better options first off: pretty much anything with paper cones! Would I choose it over Focal.? No; I would choose Tidal.

Anything with paper cones ? hahaha your joking right ?

"it's a rock and roller, sounds a bit metallic as all its diaphragms are mostly metal"

I own this speaker and it is very neutral. I have no idea what equipment you heard feeding it, but garbage in by way of brittle source or amplification will get you garbage out.

No, I'm not joking surly you know that different materials produce different sound... If you are thinking that paper is somehow a cheaper alternative remember one driver alone can cost 25,000 dollars and features a paper cone.

A good example of this is comparing a soft textile dome to a metallic dome such as titanium ..the textile dome is not fatiguing.

Q