Tubes vs. solid state.

minorl,
I agree if you can't wait to listen and in turn and can't turn the system off then its a good thing.
This reminds me of my fascination over the MBL system, I couldn't leave the room at the show, and I wasn't alone.
Some of the music they played was not my cup of tea, for instance there was some crap oops I meant rap, but it sounded awesome and everything else did too.
I want to enjoy music and would like to find myself easily enjoying new genres. I want my system to help me enjoy music I didn't feel before, then it becomes a musical journey.
I didn't feel jazz before, but as my system improved I found it easier to enjoy jazz.

guyz ever try tubed bubes? As in you tape on a 6SN7. killer stuff.

Hello Gents ,

I have heard great sound out of both and i have heard bad sound out of both , so I'm of the opinion both will work if you shop carefully,

For me personally , i cannot be bother with how finiky tubes are and find the cost of re-tubing ... well, painful! so i tend to stick to SS stuff.

regards,

I want to suggest that solid state has become so good that it really makes little sense to use tubes. There are solid state products out there right now that rival tubes but improve on areas that tube gear can seldom handle. On the other side of the coin the only thing modern tube gear is now doing is sounding like really good solid state, definately not your warm and fuzzy sound of a day gone by. I still like both but it is important to mention that your choice may be based on what type of music you normally listen to. I like tube preamps but I have had solid state preamps that make you question things.

Phd,
Would you care to list those solid state amps which have a reputation that rival tubes in terms of harmonics, mid range excellence, and 3D sound? The common understanding is that you need to look at amps which cost over $10k on a SS amp to even approach a tube amp.

Second, good tube amps can drive all but the most difficult speakers. Some of us use crossovers, and allow subs to handle the really low freq's which allows us to use low powered tube amps (mine is only 25 watts).

The challenges of having a speaker driven by voltage (tubes) instead of by current (SS) can easily be remedied. On the other side of the coin, good luck trying to find a SS amp which handles the mids and highs the way tubes do. It is near impossible!!

Notice the near unanimous concensus here that tubes are superior for most musical genres (non death metal or dance music - who listens to that crap any way).

I presume that you don;t have much experience with listening to actual tube AMPS - tube preamps + SS amp does not equal a proper tube setup.

I'll never forget when I heard my first tube amp. It was a lowly jolida 302b integrated. I wept as I went through my CD collection and rediscovered music in the mid-range which I never thought was there, nor did I ever imagine that that much detail and information can be stored on a CD. Every "high end" SS amp that I've tested failed to retrieve those details off of my CD's.

Once you turn into a tubehead, you never go back.