What is “warmth” and how do you get it?

I think most can agree that reproduced music has warmth when violins dont sound like slaughtering poultry and piano transients dont sound like someone hitting your temple with a punching tool:

So how do I pick a pc of gear of mod a pc of gear to make it more warm?

To quote some ideas from Scott Frankland:
Warmth usually comes with
* regulated power supplies
* non inductive resistors (carbon composite)
* low odd ordered harmonics

and I would like to add to that:
* oil filled caps, be it coupling or bypass
usually they come with a more linear top end response to dynamics and a richer midrange (2nd order harmonics?)
* correct coupling cap orientation
* triode power tube config (to me Ultralinear never sound warm cos its actually anything but linear at least to my ears)
* use of chokes in power supply filter (that minimizes the unwanted spiky transient distortions from complex passages)

* Ribbon tweeters are normally NOT warm.

Warmth also comes with coherence. A poorly designed crossover will not give you the bloom and palpability of instruments that reaches out to you without attacking you when playing a wide range of pitches.

My 2 cents worth.

Bryon,

Many confuse foggy muddy systems that can only play one or two of Carol Kidd's ballads as the ultimate warm systems.

Making a system foggy and rolled off masks the lack of dynamic linearity, stability, and distortion from transients.

A tube power amp may not necessarily be warm. Listen to the recent Audio Research amps. They are anything but warm.

I listened to a pair of Electra 1027Be's a few years ago with Chinese Cayin gear and they didn't sound bad at all.
I don't think they aren't tube-friendly.

I really think you ought to try a tubed DAC and a tube preamp. Just borrow a tube preamp from a friend and see if it gets you the sound you want.

@ Learsfool: Careful with Cary. That's the foggy yet non-linear sound which I couldnt deal with. Prima Luna varies from model to model, some are pretty good, some are thin and beamy.

@Bryon: worry not about the mod, if you extract the stock cap carefully you can always fit it back in with no issues.
If the old caps are professionally put back in it with care will not affect the resale value, at least IMO
It's the $$$ on labor and the expensive cap that you will lose.

I may sound like a broken record but dont change out the amp. Borrow a tube preamp from someone and try.

Hi Tmsorosk, may I ask if you are referring to acoustical "unplugged" music or electronically produced music as perhaps in a rock concert?

I go to classical concerts and recitals often (actually almost every week these past couple months) and I find that no matter where I sit, the concert hall sound is "warmer" than most stereo systems I hear (absolutely not at the dealers), including mine.

I can never hear that "Krell" and "Audio Research" kind of crystalline clinical sound when playing classical music
when I attend a live classical concert. I think that's their coloration to make it sound "wide open and airy" to attract a prospective customer has only 10 minutes or so at a stereo shop.

BTW in my opinion not all tube amps color its sound reproduction with warmth, and not all SS amps are cold and sterile (Pass XA....5 series and Paul Weitzel's TRL amps are solid state but they are warm sounding and I am sure many can agree with me)