Anyone else evolve beyond tubes?

"Buy what pleases you. It doesn't matter what anyone else believes."

Precisely my point.

As I stated above, it is all about "our" ears and "our" wallets.
Everyone owns a piece of gear that "blows away any of its competitio such as stated above by Audiooracle. I could say the same about my Lamm ML 2.1 vs his Edge but again it is all about me.

I've been progressively eliminating tubes from my system. First the phono preamp, then the preamp, now the power amp. If I stay the course, the only ones I'll left to deal with will be in my guitar amps. Heat has never been an issue for me, but the longer I ran tubes the more I heard them, and all I want to hear is the music. And they fail, they always eventually fail, whether by flaming out or just contributing little noises. I don't want to be distracted or even potentially distracted by my gear when I'm listening. Soundwise I don't think there's really a need these days, just an aesthetic preference which I'm weaning myself off of (and gaining clarity and control in the process). Plus I can enjoy more music more often if I'm able to leave my rig turned-on and warmed-up. Yep, for now I've pretty much had it with the 'romance' of tubes, and audio in general: I just want my system to be a dependable music-playing appliance, nothing less but nothing more either.

I agree there is some fantastic SS gear out there and you have found some of my favorites.

the issue of tubes vs solid states for the current generation of tube preamps and amps, exluding set amps is a non issue.

the differnces between the sound of ss and tubes, especially using "dynamic" speakers is very small and insignificant.

however, the older tube products, say from the 70's and 80's do offer an audible difference with respect to ss components.

Don't miss them at all, cep't for spice. I have no use for solid state either.