Describe ube sound vs solid state

you are correct John, their is no best tube, these just get most votes as most liked, that's it, there you go, cheers.

Audiolabyrinth, I'm not a big tube roller, so my perception may be narrow compared to others.

The Gold Lions replaced TungSol's in the line stage of the original VAC Avatar. I had been sniffing around the McIntosh offerings and noticed a pattern of users swapping out the factory tubes for the Lions, and a consensus of improvement. I was curious.

At first, I thought the top end sounded brittle, and I had lost some bass. This changed after just a few days of burn. The first new thing I noticed was a sustained organ note as a track faded out, when before it had gone to black.

Holistically, the sound seemed more liquid. Things moved in and out of the sound-scape with a sense of holding a water balloon instead of a basketball. The oddest thing was standing in front of the amp with speakers to the side and having a sense of much more music surrounding the speakers, instead of just projecting forward. Strange.

Specifically, on something like Roy Orbison singing, "Only the Lonely," the backup singers were clearly delineated by number and voice, which greatly increased the pleasure of the performance. I always thought the Janis Ian album, "Breaking Silence," was really good in terms of sound and craftsmanship, even though Janis's voice is soft. With the Gold Lions it becomes spectacularly good. Finally, I played trumpet, and the Empire Brass sound more metallic in the right way.

All this could be device/circuit dependent, so YMMV and all that, but this is kinda/sorta what I experienced.

Electroslacker, Thankyou, that was a comprehensive well said post, I like the old Roy orbison too, though I admitt, it's been a long time, I do not own any of his recording's any more, my mother played Roy alot, I was alway's fasinated by how good he sing's, your despription of the Gold Lion tubes sound's good to me,where did you get them?

Jmcgrogan2, what is your like's for the 12au7 and 12ax7 tube's?

Amazon. Resistance is futile. $35 each.