Why are older tubes so much sought after

So I guess that the one thing that everyone agrees about is that tubes "color" (alter) the sound: opinions vary regarding the best color.

But I thought the objective is to reproduce sound with "High Fidelity", which means without alteration. There really is nothing wrong with altering the sound if that's what you like, but such a system should be regarded as a musical instrument rather than a reproducing instrument.
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Hi Trelja,

I would agree with sirspeedy, you need to find the right balance for a specific set up. But I think this takes a great deal of experience, time and cash.

I listen to a wide range of musical styles. From classical orchestral music and small scale instrumental music though to rock and electronic music. This is the main reason I dont go for old tubes and except in a few critical areas dont use them at all now.

My main use for tubes are in mic preamps and vintage mics these days where I am looking for color. My hifi is tuned to be neutral.

I have never found any tube to work well in a full range system although wonderful in bandwidth limited set ups like Quads etc or for a specific type of music normally acoustic small scale with or without voice.

Eldartford,

my point exactly.

hi eldartford:

you made a very insightful staemnet when you referred to stereo systems as "musical" rather than "reproducing" instruments.

in fact, all components are imperfect. thus at best, all stereo systems are imperfect reproducing instruments.

doesn't it make sense to select the nature of imperfection rather than settle for whatever accrues from configuring a stereo system in an attempt to create accuracy ?

obviously tube selection may be a way to voice a stereo system to suit one's taste.

Eldartford, FWIW, what was the HiFi enthusiast's goal in those days before the transistor was introduced to audio? All he had to work with was tubes, so I must assume his goal was unobtainable, he just didn't know it?

Now along comes the transistor based equipment and all of the great measurements regarding distortions etc. Now we have a standard, except for one minor thing. It was grain ridden, cold, clinical, and for the most part just unmusical (yeh, I know its gotten a lot better in recent years). And it certainly did facilitate the developement of power hungry speaker designs. Do you not consider the sonic distortions introduced by transistors to be a 'colorization' of the original recorded signal albeit less so in frequency response?

The goal of all audio components is, or IMHO shoud be, to collectively create a system that reminded one of a musical event being replicated in small scale in the home. The key to reaching that goal is a users recall or fantasy of what the music sounded like in the original venue. A very subjective venture, at best.

Of course we tune our systems to accomodate our sensitivities. What other alternative 'actually' exists. None I think. :-)