Is a tube phono better than ss?

"My experience is that it mainly speaker dependent."

I would tend to agree with that.

Its dependant on the overall system and the sound it delivers really, but I think teh speakers are the main thing that you build around and all the rest will fall into place around that based on personal preference more so than any inherent superiority of tube amplification versus SS.

No doubt many will disagree with me on this, especially tube amp lovers, who tend to almost always prefer tubes and the unique things that often only tubes can do.

Neither is better, any more than chocolate is better than vanilla or vice versa. IT all can be mighty tasty and appeal to the masses if done well. That's the key! Quality trumps technology when it comes to these things.

I will say that almost every reference system I have heard that I tend to prefer tends to have a tube or two in the mix somewhere, though not necessarily in the phono stage. The one I have heard that was truly reference quality with no tubes was a very high end and costly mbl system.

In fact, I think appeal of tubes is greater when used to add some needed flavoring to digital, though there is no basis to say the preferred results are quantifiably "better" than otherwise. The opposite is more likely the case.

I have no tubes currently in my second system which I think now sounds quite spot on and better than ever, even with tubes in prior. I do use an amp there though that is designed to be a reasonable SS alternative to a tube amp.

Just want to add an observation that is related Atmasphere's comment about surface noise. Perhaps we are talking about the same thing, but I would describe it this way (and acknowledging the dangers in generalizing):

To my ears, LP surface noise heard when using a tube phono stage often seems to be removed from the music content; almost as if it is occurring in a different plane, and as a result can be less obtrusive. Using a ss phono stage it seems to be more a part of the music and consequently more difficult to ignore. IMO and based on using many different pre's of both persuasions over the years.

Pops and ticks as an indicator of NF Ringing?

Hadn't thought about that but would seem to make sense.

Also I think I understand Frogman's comment about how lp surface noise sounds with tube amplification versus otherwise in general. I have been running a tube phono pre-amp for several years now and have not done direct comparisons with prior SS units I've owned, but in general I there could be some validity to saying the noise inhernet with tube amplification is less apparent than with SS.

Pops and ticks as an indicator of NF Ringing?

Hadn't thought about that but would seem to make sense.

Seen it. about 25 years ago a friend of mine and I both bought the same UHQR LP from a specialty store. For some reason his was noisy and mine was not- until he brought his over to my house and found that it was nice and quiet as well. Turned out his preamp was the problem (we had the same cartridge and tone arm).

It took some work; we found that both preamps had very good RIAA EQ, IOW that was not it. A big difference between the two is my preamp was tube and zero feedback, his was solid state with active EQ. When I put the units on the bench and ran some tests it was easier to see what was going on.

The slew rates of the two preamps and bandwidth (as you might expect) were nearly the same. Quite literally it came down to the use of active EQ. This was the first time but not the last that I have seen this phenomena.

I have a pet theory that cheap phono sections in inexpensive receivers has led people to think LPs are noisy all the time, which has led to general acceptance of CDs :)

Nice story Ralph. I'm not sure whether it means active EQ is always inferior though. My everyday tube phono uses passive eq and does not have any negative feedback, but I also have a very conventional 12AX7 phono with RIAA in the feedback loop, and they both sound good although rather different. Although I prefer the sound of the preamp with passive eq, I haven't noticed any differences in tracking ability or mistracking noise.