Topic: Stay SS or go Tube???

[Chilly Brioschi]

I can only give you my personal experience, it can be a heated topic.

1) Tube is better
2) The tube sound, to me, mostly occurs in the high-power amplifier section.

That is a tube Pre will add a small bit of warmth, but a tube Pre and Power Amp is where my sweet spot is.
The aural hologram is from the small 3rd order THD and slight compression that the power amp delivers, from what I've tested.
Pres provide these, but usually in much lower doses.

Your mileage can vary and use your own ears!
Get to a good high-end shop and put in a few hours to see if the investment would be worth the difference in sound.

As a side-note, the ST-140 is about as "tubey" a solid-state amp as I've heard.
If you sell it, LMK, I'm thinking about upgrading the Rotel patio amp and tubes aren't an option there.

Lastly, implementation is not to be overlooked.
A poorly designed tube amp will not be better that a well-designed solid state one.

[som]

mmmm.... Tooob.  Though it's tough for shows to get the watts you want for the $$ you wish to spend.  Well I guess that depends on your listening habits. 

not sure what you mean

my tube amp is 30wpc and it gets LOUD at 11am on the dial, I've never even pushed it past noon

all watts are not created equal

Hell, my Almarro integrated is 4.5 watts, and I rarely push it past noon! My speakers are pretty efficient, though.

 

[Tim]

I like you SET guys, you brag about how few watts your amp has

[som]

I like you SET guys, you brag about how few watts your amp has

Such rebels!

Zero to sixty in five miles....

[boojum]

Most of the superiority of tube amps is described in vague and non-measurable terms.  This has some great degree of overlap with the placebo effect.  All the gushing and wonder over tube amps was also used on SS amps when they came out and replaced tubes.  I am not a fan of retro.  I grew up with tubes and records.  I use neither now.  The "tube sound" is merely a form of euphonious distortion.  I prefer accuracy.  As usual, YMMV.

I have a hafler XL-280 for my mix monitors and two hafler 500 amps mono-bridged to crank out ~1200 watts each.  The sound is clean, clear and quite nice.  The mono bridged amps drive a pair of SoundLab Pristines.  Trust me, the sound is very good.  Good enough that I stopped shopping for amps and speakers.     

[Jammin72]

I don't think anyone believes that tubes are more accurate, it's quite clear that they have greater measurable harmonic distortion and if anything exaggerate the soundstage.  It really more about what you find to be more pleasing.  Lush, warm, visceral, all in some sense "muddy up" the works but the effect can be enjoyable.  There's a balance to be had.  There are many devices that claim to be uber-accurate that end up sounding sterile and hard, the accuracy is all good and well but sometime too much accuracy tends towards a less "musical" presentation. Synergy comes into play as well depending on your favorite transducers, in our particular case this applies on both ends; encoding (mic) and decoding (speaker).

Most of the superiority of tube amps is described in vague and non-measurable terms.  This has some great degree of overlap with the placebo effect.  All the gushing and wonder over tube amps was also used on SS amps when they came out and replaced tubes.  I am not a fan of retro.  I grew up with tubes and records.  I use neither now.  The "tube sound" is merely a form of euphonious distortion.  I prefer accuracy.  As usual, YMMV.

I have a hafler XL-280 for my mix monitors and two hafler 500 amps mono-bridged to crank out ~1200 watts each.  The sound is clean, clear and quite nice.  The mono bridged amps drive a pair of SoundLab Pristines.  Trust me, the sound is very good.  Good enough that I stopped shopping for amps and speakers.     

[Tim]

it's just music, who cares if it's clinically accurate? It's about finding a sound that is right for your own ears which is an incredibly subjective decision. Ultimately the idea is to enjoy the music. If you enjoy music more with harmonic distortions so be it. if you enjoy music more with dead-on accuracy so be it.

Who cares about measurements? They can't tell you how a particular piece of gear sounds, only your ears can. The only question that matters is "does it sound good?" If your answer is yes then congratulations, regardless of what your gear is.

[Nick's Picks]

the reality of it all is depressing.
a $50 "Sonic Impact" class D amp and some efficient speakers probably would put the same smile on my face as the gear I use now.