Switched From Tubes To SS???Glad You Did???

No worries Bill. ;-). It's a case of 'horses 4 courses'. There's more than
one way to skin the 'audio Kat', & I simply referenced my own personal
experience. Audio contains all sorts of 'rabbitt holes' one can disappear
into, 4 any length of time. It's half the fun & certainly a portion of the
education. I don't believe one type of equipment, solid state or tubes,
can claim exclusive ownership of audio 'fun'. I do, in my own home,
listen to more music thru my integrated amps, solid state, tubed, & hybrid,
than when I owned an expensive solid state stack or tubed monos & pre.
It has ALL been fun. Often expensive. Surprisingly educational. As I like
to tell my wife, "guys need hobbies, it keeps us off the streets".

Yeah yeah yeah...doesn't it seem idiotically simplistic to make a judgement call about this particular area of aesthetic esoterica? And does anybody realize what I just wrote made no sense? I WAS joking around but I might have been accidentally correct...or not...tough room...tough room...whew...

Whart I too have a small vinyl collection. It's a chore double, sometimes triple or quad dipping into the same titles :(

I already have the Shelby Lynne on LP and CD, but couldn't resist the new audiophile pressing on LP and SACD.

I know.. what a sucker :D

For more contemporary music, I recently got Amy Winehouse, Nirvana on LP. Heck I even got Nirvana off HD Tracks.

But I digress.

Anyway, the Ayon CD2S was my first dip into tubes. I shortly upgraded to the Ayon CD5S. Then I went overboard with an Audio Research Reference 5 which was later upgraded to the 5SE. I still use the Ayon as a CDP/Pre on a second system.

The truth is I am not into tubes all the way. I like dynamics and detail, and I found the Ayon + ARC was too off pace for my liking. So I ended up using only one tube gear in the chain (preamp) and have SS CDP (EMM Labs XDS1) and SS power amps (Electrocompaniet Nemos).

Although we haven't gone completely solid state, our system at the lake still uses tubes, the main home system has slowly gone all SS . Tubes have the smooth, liquid advantage, but solid state will always be superior in clarity, dynamic swing and definition. I've never looked at tubes as fun, more of a nuisance for folks that just want to listen to music.
I've pondered over which is superior for many years, in the end it doesn't really matter, it would be churlish to think we could live without either..

Wolf, no malice intended, it is hard to tell from the Internet, because you can't see the smile, the arch of the eyebrow or the wink.