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[Xcalibur]

lol, u dont want to know where that bitterness came from

It's always surprising, the tube thing also spread other places. Guitar for example, so many guitarists so deeply believe tubes sound better, some companies included tubes on some pedals where the tubes weren't even part of the circuit... Simply there for guitarists to believe they were analog and so better sounding than ss...

Another 1000$ wager I'd do; real tube amp vs solid state with tube modeling. I'd bet nobody could tell them apart...

Guitarists prefer tubes because of their overdrive behavior. Tubes soft clip when overdriven, as opposed to SS which hard clips. The result is two very different, and very easy to hear, types of distortion. How a guitar distorts plays a big part of the sound the player is looking to achieve.

To an extent this is also true of audiophile tube gear. It isn't about what a tube amp does have but rather what it lacks: diode switching noise, odd order harmonics, feedback..... all of these things make music sound harsh and less realistic. A well designed tube amp doesn't sound "tubey" it just sounds neutral and correct only it has certain advantages over SS in terms of not creating noise that the human ear finds to be very unpleasant, noise that transistors all produce.

The very first tubes for audio use, DHTs or directly heated triodes, are the most linear and distortion free amplification devices ever invented. This can be proven through measurement as well as listening. The reason they aren't still used widely is because they make very little power, are very inefficient, and are made by hand via craftsmen instead of being mass produced. Convenience wins over performance, much like how the world is dominated by mp3s today.

Your comments sound like bashing based on things you've heard or read rather than actual experience with good examples of the products in question. I've had the pleasure of using both amplification types and find both to be excellent when well designed, but a properly implemented tube amp produces tone colors and harmonics in a way that is all but impossible to do with transistors.

[bkdc]

Guitarists prefer tubes because of their overdrive behavior. Tubes soft clip when overdriven, as opposed to SS which hard clips. The result is two very different, and very easy to hear, types of distortion. How a guitar distorts plays a big part of the sound the player is looking to achieve.

The answer is to get a more powerful solid state amplifier. Unless the guitarist wants to hear tube distortion from an overdriven tube amp. The caveat when it comes to amps has been stated and restated --- the comparison of amps occurs when an amplifier is driven well within its specified limitations of power. Anyone who complains about amplifier distortion as a reason for preferring a tube amp really should reframe his mindset. That's like complaining complaining about your Honda's Civic's performance as you drive to drive it on the racetrack. The answer is to get an amplifier that can handle what you throw at it.

All arguments go out the door if someone is intentionally trying to achieve the sound of tube amplifier distortion.