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Into 2009; What rules?? Tubes or Solid State

I know that this question has had endless debate over the years and that there is also alot of 'Hybrid Equipment' which makes it hard to neatly categorize. Also, at what price points are we talking about?

But those things aside, if you had to make the choice starting from scratch in 2009, which way would you go?? Tubes or Solid State??
brauser
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Speakers rule.
classical1
168 posts
 
Since I first tried a tube preamp, I'd always been "afraid" to try a tube amp because of heat and problems I read about with tube amps.

A few weeks ago I got a new tube amp and wish I'd done it earlier. I went with one (BAT), that I'm hoping is pretty much 'plug and play', as there is no biasing to do.

If anyone was like me, you owe it to yourself to try a tube amp. This is a whole new world and I guess time will tell if there are any maintenance issues.

I live in a hot summer climate and think I might switch things out to a SS integrated for those months.. but regarding your question, if starting from scratch, I'd go tubes.
learsfool
1,215 posts
 
I would certainly vote for tubes - better imaging, more accurate instrumental timbres, better realization of the sound of the human voice, to name just three good reasons.
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nilthepill
842 posts
 
I will not be PC.
Tubes give better overall realistic sound. I feel that I have 'wasted' many years sticking with high power (400+ watts) SS amps, recently the highly regarded MBL 9008A's. Now the 60-90 Watt tube amps produces that sounds more powerful and fuller sounding than the 400 watt behemoths i used over the years
Of course, I have auditioned some exceptional tube sounding SS amps, but they are still not completely like tubes. Have not heard the DarT yet.
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