from solid state to tube

My friend moved from a Conrad Johnson MV60SE amplifier to a Lab 47 Gaincard (50 wpc model) and is quite pleased. He still wants a tube amp but his budget cannot afford what he wants (high powered SET or push/pull interstage coupled amp).

There are a lot of different ways to audio satisfaction. I wouldn't say I was ever a tube aficionado, but I did own a number of tube components over the years--more out of curiosity with the flavor of sound than anything else--but, alas, I've turned to the "dark side," aka solid state. I now have an amp that can do most of the tube tricks and has none of the traditional drawbacks, and my SS digital front end is very natural sounding as well. I just got tired of the usual tube hassles, and though it took me a while to find SS gear as musically satisfying and enjoyable as the best tube gear, I think I've finally found it. Color me a happy camper.

get the cj back.....your friend is on the road to nowhere

Well, I have done (almost) exactly what you said, and have only just backed off it just a bit recently. (Except I have not gone the SET amplification - high efficiency speaker route. I did it my way, to quote ole' Blue Eyes!)

I used to run all tube equipment back in the late '80s & early '90s. (Counterpoint preamp w/ CJ amp.)

Then a few years ago, in the early '90s, I went to Solid State (SS) amplification, by substituting a Levinson No. 27 amp for the CJ amp. (The tubeyness of the CJ amp finally got to me. I really wanted something that had full frequency range extension and got rid of the euphonic bloom that grew tiresome after awhile.)

A few years ago, I got back into stereos, (and especially back into vinyl), and went with an ARC LS-2 preamp and a ARC PH-3 phono preamp. I appreciated the reliability of the ARC equipment, as the Counterpoint was starting to breakdown more frequently. (Counterpoint had good sonics though, especially for the price.)

However, after a couple of years, I grew extremely tired of the tube rushing from the ARC equipment, so I went totally SS. I replaced the ARC preamps and went with an Ayre K-1X preamp, including the phono boards. (This preamp is pretty amazing, as it is both musical and detailed. The phono boards are very, very good, especially for the price. And it is dead quiet!! Yea!)
Note: At the same time, I also upgraded my old Levinson No. 27 (100 wpc) to a Levinson No. 23 (200 wpc), as my new speakers, Revel Studios, (which are not very efficient speakers), really wanted more power to really open them up. (I knew that the Levinson was pretty decent, but I realized that it was more of a placeholder, until I could figure out which amp I really wanted.)

Just a couple of weeks ago, I put the final piece in the puzzle. I upgraded to the Lamm M2.1s, which are a hybrid mono block amplifiers (1 tube in each), and they have ended my search. They have just a touch of tube sound in the mid-range, otherwise they have all the makings of a great SS amp, with none of the weaknesses (no HF glare, no grain, etc.). They have great frequency extension, and no tweaking necessary, unless you really want to play around with the one tube, which I might at some point.

At this point, I am through with my amplification portion of my stereo system. (In fact, I am almost done period, as I really like my entire system. At some point, I might upgrade the turntable and arm, but that will not be for a year or two, until I can pay off the Lamms. Yeah, they are expensive, but well worth it in my opinion!)

I am now: One Happy Camper!
(My wife is glad the journey to audio nirvana is over too, as it was getting pretty expensive in the later stages!)

I am slowly trying to add solid state components to what is a predominantly tube set-up. I started with the digital fornt-end. Now I am trying to add a solid state phono stage and a solid state amp. In addition, a vendor I trust explicitly that had made some high quality and expensive tube amps/preamps is now making solid state amps they feel have the tube sound and are dead quiet. So the question makes for an interesting discussion.