solid state vs tubes

I've heard both very good tube systems and very good SS systems sound great. They're just coming to grips with the solution from two different angles. The better ones do tend to sound the same despite their different starting points.

Its only our limited exposure to all the implementations out there that gives rise to this debate.

I second that Musicman and blindjim said it best.

"Nothing ever gets resolved in these discussions, and the circularity of the discussion continues ad infinitum."

You're right Tvad, but what I have difficulty understanding is why you're right. Objective fact: Tubes are not solid state and vice verse. They are different and they sound different.

This whole thing brings diet cola to mind. In the beginning, the whole thing with diet was about approximating the taste of the original cola with sugar. Ad campaigns frequently claimed that the results of taste tests concluded that a new version of diet was indistinguishable from the original. But a funny thing happened over time, diet cola began to stand on it's own two feet and many people chose to prefer it to the original. Diet advocates didn't feel that they had to justify their choice by saying that diet tastes like the original cola, they just said they preferred it. Now, if you walk down the pop isle you'll notice each major brand has several varieties of cola - different strokes for different folks. What I never hear in any lunchroom is an argument over which cola tastes better or that a certain diet tastes like the original. It doesn't. Who cares. Solid state isn't tubes and therefore doesn't sound like tubes. Choose the one you like and be happy. What's there to argue about?

"Choose the one you like and be happy." Well, that makes perfect sense. Unfortunately when a compulsive necessity to have "the best" turns into obsession, we don't always make sense and then next thing you know the music is secondary to the equipment and the merry-go-round keeps spinning.....

MrT, there may be another way to do this. The Quad has a low impedance at high frequencies and a lot of transistor amps will tend to make more power due to that, part of the reason why they sound bright on the ESLs and with less bass impact than most tube amps.

OTOH, your Maggies have a flat impedance curve, but also need some power, but delivered into a 4 ohm load. With any SS amp made, the more current you demand of the amp, the more you get non-linearities caused by capacitive elements in the junctions of the output devices. IOW even though they may drive 4 ohms just fine, most transistor amps will sound better on 8 or 16 all other things being equal.

So there is a single solution that might be worth pursuing, the ZERO. If you use a transistor amp, this may take away some of the glare, although you will also loose power. But with a tube amp it may not only have the amp sounding more relaxed, but may give you greater power (although only slightly so) as well.

Some of the driving issues with tubes and Maggies are actually the speaker cables. The ZERO will allow the cable and the amp to see 16 ohms, and then a very short set of cables can be used on the 4 ohms side, allowing you to keep your cable losses to a minimum.

Something to think about.