can a tube-o-phile be happy with ss?

Here is my experience.....Bought a SS amp - didn't like the way it sounded, so I bought another, didn't like it so much either, so I bought another, ditto, ditto, etc.

Then I bought a tube amp! Almost wonderful - bought some different tubes. Different sound but not much if any better. Bought some more tubes, it sounded worse. Bought some more tubes, ditto. Couldn't get the perfect sound. So I bought a new tubed amp - very similar result, only the details change. Never could find the perfect tube amp either.

Now I've given up on finding the ideal power amp, but I have taken to listening to tubes as my new hobby. To hell with the music.

Or so it seems some times......:-)

Newbie
...now that's funny. Thanks. For a good long while mine was listening to wires.

Markwatkiss, the wine analogy is very apt. . . I would even push it so far as saying that most wines are sadly poor, with reds and whites tending to the 'terrible' each in their own idiosyncratic ways. . . then there are a few marvellous ones. . . red, white, and some. . . rose. . . . and so are stereo components. I do confess of having a preference for certain full bodied reds, yet I do recognize cheerily that SS is not necessarily for everyone.

Chad has it right.

Hearing a pair of Apogee Duettas or Scintillas with a high quality solid state amp is a breathtaking experience.

Given all the makes and models of loudspeakers available, past and present, a one size fits all approach makes no sense.

I loved Chad's and Newbee's posts, had a similar reaction to Jadis like Loki1957 a few years back and completely agree with Bill.
After a few sleepless nights and finally throwing fiscal sanity completely overboard (following the late Harvey Rosenberg's suggestion what to do with the female members of your family, when the audiophile lust overcomes you) I settled both for a Boulder and a Wavac phono preamp. Both bought here used. Of course they sound different, but I would be completely happy with either of them. At the beginning I thought of reselling the one I preferred less but now I find that I use the Wavac generally with chamber music, voices and small jazz combos and the Boulder, which contrary to suggestions in their literature, I had to tweak with Walker's Valid Points to make it sound right for my ears (the Wavacs rest on SRA bases)comes into play with large orchestra, opera and generally when I want slam next to finesse. My subs are solid state of course, but my tweeters, the aCapella ion tweeters are tube driven.
So I run a happy mix of gear, the choice of which my ears decided for me. The discussion which technology is better is completely moot, I find. There are "musical" rigs and "hifi" rigs, rigs set up by concert goers and rigs set up by review readers, a distinction of course not made with a fine comb, but these differences are possibly more worth while to pursue and discuss, or music lovers versus gear lovers at that, than SS versus tube. That I use tube amplification with my Sound Labs, (VTL Siegfrieds and the Atma MA2 Mk3s) was more dictated by my choice of speakers than by any preference for tubes.