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

I will only go back to SS if I want to downgrade in sound or get out of the hobby altogether. I'm getting a Linn Classik for days that I'll only listen to music for 1-2 hours. It'll come in handy if a tube goes out and I have no back up.

Relative pathological or hysterical tonal merit opinions notwithstanding, I enjoy tube swapping as a user friendly tone change vehicle to a degree that I can't imagine not being able to do that. I find the tactile and visual aspects of a tube amp (with tubes I can see) so appealing that the only SS amp I could imagine using has to have at least a meter to look at...I seem to have needs. I'm thinking of designing a display case for my extra tubes with little LEDs under each tube so they glow harmlessly. Official name: The Garcia Tube Display and Dust Protector Art Thing. Try doing that with a display of transistors...not so pretty now is it!

"There is both good and less-than-good tube gear out there...”
"It is really just a function of which sonic trade-offs you can live with..."

Robsker - Those are very valid points, but I think it’s equally valid to state that the higher the quality of tube gear and tubes that we’re talking about, the more those trade-offs diminish.

"I enjoy tube swapping as a user friendly tone change vehicle...”

Wolf - Tubes can certainly serve that purpose, but higher quality tubes, properly matched with the circuit and each other, can have a much more profound impact than merely altering tones. IMO, that’s where the real opportunity is to achieve the speed, dynamics and all those other goodies associated with solid state.

I suppose I should be more succinct in my description of tube swapping benefits...I meant it changes the SOUND. I think replacing the 6550s in my amp with KT120s made it snappier...although I'm not sure, but I am sure I'm not interested in it sounding like a solid state amp particularly. It did make me feel better so there's that.

I tried unsuccessfully to switch back to SS three different times.

Shakey