differences between tube and solid state designs

I have had SS and now I have tubes. I recently obtained a pair of Quicksilver V4's and in my system and they combine the best of both. At 120w they have power but also the tube characteristics that I like. I can't wait till they break in fully.

BTW one of the things my wife laughs about most is the need to break in a multi-thousand dollar before it sounds it's best. Oh and she does admit after listening that she likes the Quickies more than my SS amp or the other tube amps that I auditioned.

I wish a convergence revolution would happen among speaker manufacturers the way it has with tubes and SS - where quality would go up, and value would go up *not* in direct relation to price. Not that there aren't bad $10,000 speakers. There are. I know it's harder to design them, but why, WHY, must they all pretty much suck? Amps have come so far, and the output devices lag so far behind.

Biomimetic, I can't speak to loudspeaker design at a specific price point, but maybe I can point out one reason why a loudspeaker's job in general is quite a challenge.

Everything in the analog signal path before the loudspeaker deals with three domains: Frequency, amplitude, and timing (or phase).

In addition to variations in these three domains, the acoustic signal generated by the loudspeaker has directional characteristics in three-dimensional space. So the challenge loudspeakers face is at least an order of magnitude greater that that faced by components operating purely in the electrical domain, and indeed we find that a loudspeaker's deviation from "flat" pretty much anywhere in that three dimensional space (including on-axis) is at least an order of mangitude greater than an electronic component's deviation from "flat".

Duke

Easy, Old school tubes themselves were different, most of the new 5 dollar tubes today sound far more solid state to me, and these are mostly used in new designs, very few amp manufactures today go with NOS tubes(Cost, availability, reliability etc).. Some updated new solid state super tolerance parts in the tube amps are possibly part of it with extreme tight power supplies and all that, but most of the newer stuff I think can be made to sound tubish with old type Mullard tubes or whatever so this is hard to prove or say.

Actually, I think the old tubes sound old and crappy and most likely the "golden glow" people remember is bad reproduction - I have had very bad experiences with NOS even JAN - I won't buy them anymore; microphonic, poor lifespan, inconsistent output. Everything I hate about tubes. The reproductions are much better. And the new Czech tubes like JJ Teslas and Golden Lions are really the real deal - as good as the Mullard EL34's. Not the same sound but as good. I don't want something lush that hides things and then makes fizzy sounds after an hour and tapping sounds as I walk around when I get out of my seat to figure out what the hell is going on. Of course I also don't care for 300B's so much... High tolerances are for the best I think, computer-controlled robotics doing transformer windings, along with rare metal alloys that weren't available before, really have made both SS and tubes function at a higher level. I know many hi-end manufacturers now use silver wire, rhodium, cryo, or whatever to improve the throughpath and power supply.

As far as speakers go, I know: make one aspect of output better means the others get worse. It's just part of the math. But what I'd really like to know is why when a company like Zu or Joseph or Green Mountain comes up with a novel way of making a speaker people can't wait to tear them down.