Anyone else evolve beyond tubes?

Umm but it doesn’t get rid of the tubes. So you still need them even though you’re using a SS amp. I have a T-amp and really like it for lower listening levels (bedroom system). But my main 2 channel system is all tubes. I really like it better than any of the SS amps that I have used.

What really matters is DO YOU LIKE IT? Unless you’re chasing the dog, when it sounds great to you, then sit and listen.

I really think that room acoustics far outweighs any hi end mod you can do with equipment however. I have heard some under 1000.00 systems sound better than 10000.00 systems by room arrangements and good attention to sound materials. In fact the funniest blind test I attended was a comparison between two SS amps; a 150.00 pioneer verses a Mark Levinson ML2. Most people enjoyed the smooth midrange of the pioneer!? But liked the overall detail of the Mark Levinson. It blew me away. But actually it was how the room was laid out and the materials used that allowed the lesser amp to sound well beyond its price and build range. I thought it was a SS amp pitted against a lesser tube amp.

Eggs ackley my friend..the room, the power.. everything matters..enjoy!!

Dave_b , Well a tube in a source is virtually the same as running a tube pre.. I mean truth is you are just implementing tube sound in different component but same upstream fashon. I Say if you can get a tube output stage on a CD player with volume control, then yes it is very possible to have just as good of a musical sound sense as running a Tube pre or an amp.. I definatley believe in solid state amps being better for my taste, lots of air and punch, with power in reserve. Tube amps top out faster and the more you turn them up sometimes the softer they can get unless you can go into big dollar mono's with tons of tubes and heat, so I guess with the original statement of for the cost implemented yes solid state circuitry today especially in amplifiers can be just as enjoyable as tubes. However I still believe tubes in the chain either at the source or the preamp are a good option, and needed in many cases. I would go try a CD or Dac Tubed if I did not need a phono source, but thats why running a tube pre is still necessary in my case, otherwise I could get away with all solid state counterpart I guess.

All my gear is solid state. Lots of slam, and dunk, and hiss sort of like bacon frying, which is like napalm in the morning as Robert Duval said.

I now use a combination of both ss & tubes, a tube preamp & solid state power amp although just recently picked up a tube power amp, specifically the Nobis Cantabile which has a Fet front end based on the classic Marantz 8B driving four EL34s in ultralinear mode , what a great find for the price. I am very impressed with this tube power amp and have had some very enjoyable listening sessions with it so far. If I have evolved at all it seems I have gone back and forth between tubes and solid state each offering their own unique qualities and even mixing the two together. There is no right or wrong answer to this dilema but what works for yourself.

Not too far back there was an article in Stereophile magazine in which the reviewer stated he could not understand the resurgence of interest in tube gear when you take into account how good todays solid state sounds.

After reading Corey Greenberg's review (1992) from Stereophile magazine on the Nobis Cantabile amp, I think a quote from it may be worth repeating here as it gives another point of view of tube versus solid state:

"I dig tube amps. When all's said and done, good tube amps seem to sound more like real life than most solid-state gear, even after listening to & enjoying the hell out of musical solid state designs like the ARC D-240II and the Muse model One hundred, once I hooked up the big VTL Deluxe 225s again it's just like going home. I could go on about timbral accuracy and cleaner midrange textures but the bottom line is, music just sounds better when you shoot it through good tubes, and once most people experience that magic, they're hooked".

I just given two point of views and you can do whatever turns you on. But I will keep both ss & tube on hand because variety is the spice of life. There are no set rules and if there were, they are meant to be broken.