Tube Phono Stage vs Solid State What do you think?

As usual Raul is very positive and as usual I disagree with him. I just sold my Denon DL-S1 as I found my AT 33 EV to be better. My phono stage, the same ASR Exclusive that he warns you not to buy. I have a 2006 version which is the best I have had ; it is well liked by my friends who have chosen tube units. One has the Tron, for example. My version of THE TRUTH is this: both tubes and SS can sound great but they are unlikely to sound the same; the choice is yours to make. Your system and taste should determine which you buy, no one else can get inside your head and hear they way you do. Of course, it is difficult if not impossibe to hear things these days so we are all dependent to a large degree on what we hear from others. What I try to do is find reviewers or posters who like the same type of sound as I do and place some faith in their views. For instance when I was considering Gamut speakers I noticed a positive review on Dagogo about them. I ended up getting the L5s and really like them. A few months later I had a chance to get an Audia Flight line stage at a good price; the fact that the same revewer also used it in his system was part of the reason I decided to get it. I have also been happy with it. So try to identify revewers/posters who share your taste if possible; knowing your own taste is the begining of wisdom in audio,

If you get the BAT be aware that you can't always believe what you read, the older units can not be upgraded to be the same as the newer units (different mother board). I've got an older VK P-10 that I'm happy with, except that occasional channel balance adjustments are required and these are a pain in the southern regions (remove cover, warm up 1 - 2 hours, connect meter, tweak, repeat). Newer versions have an auto balance feature.

Dear Stanwal, Wouldn't you think that "great" phono stages should tend to sound the same on a given system. The "great"-er they are, the more they should begin to resemble each other, IMO. I recently had that experience comparing my Atma MP1 phono section to an Ayre P5Xe. While I gave the edge to the Atma-sphere (which I had tweaked to use a hybrid cascode phono input, rather than an all tube cascode as per OEM, so admittedly not "pure" tubes all the way), the Ayre at times could be indistinguishable from the MP1, just a bit more "dry" sounding.

Lewm- If you think about it, it makes sense. For any single individual, the best sounding [insert component here] will tend to converge, because they are closest to that person's "absolute sound" (irony intended; we each have our own absolute).

Dear Stanwal: That you like op-amps it only means that but that that's the best way to go.

As I said: all depends of what you are looking for. If the ASR op-amps fill your gap good for you: that's your quality level " you die for ", mine is different.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.