Mtdking-
I have great respect for the amount of good gear you have listened too. With all due respect though constantly changing speakers will make your general amp comparisons less applicable for the rest of us. In the case of the Lamms both the Vandersteen 5as and Kharma Midi are much more tube friendly speakers than mine. I've heard the current argument before. I'm no expert and no where near as knowledgeable as you are but the explanation of "tube friendly" and "SS friendly" speaker designs as explained by Ralph at Atma Sphere makes a lot of sense to me. In that explanation he describes the characteristics of tubes and SS as they relate to 4, 8, 16, etc. loads. Both the Kharma and 5as are 8 ohm loads and are generally efficient speaker. I don't doubt your empirical results but I would still say matching the right amp to the right speaker is more important than trying to find the "ultimate" amp. I'm sure the big Krells would sound great on my 20ts as would Levinson, Boulder, Classe, or just about any other great SS amp. However I've heard all of the ones mentioned and while they are all good they are also different. From there it comes down to taste. The big Krells are a bit bright for my taste. I think the Arye MXRs are better at capturing the emotion and space of the performance. I agree the Boulders would be exceptional but they're just too darn big! Thanks for chiming in.
