Where do tubes matter most???

Tubes probably matter most in the power amp but a tube preamp can add quite alot of tubeyness. Or, like the Audio Research LS 16 I use just add a little bit of that magic to make everything just right. I personally couldn't have a tube amp as too much smoothness kills the inner detail. I started with a Cary AE 3 preamp which was very rich and liquid but was too much for me. It has some wonderful attributes especially for vocals though but the bass and detail wasn't there for me. The ARC preamp however is just right. I'm driving a Parasound Hca 3500 SS amp which isn't noted for being the most smooth ss amp out there but with the Audio Research pre things are smooth and grainfree, ss nasties are gone. I'd been using a Krell preamp before the Cary and the little Cary was easily more enjoyable to listen to than the Krell. You can have too much ss sound too but you can find a balance you'll like with just a preamp IMO.

I really think the power amp is where tubes matter the most. My experience is more limited to guitar amps, but they certainly are amplifiers.

I own a class A tube preamp made by Matchless, which is quite a great item, btw. I also own a '67 Fender Super Reverb. While the preamp is a great thing to bring to a rehearsal room so I can warm up the inevitable Solid State Roland Jazz Chorus I'll find there, it just can't sound as good as the all-tube Fender.

I find that I get the best tone from any amp (clean tone, that is, which is what you're looking for in an audio setting), by keeping the preamp levels as low as possible in favor of cranking the power amp, at least up to the clipping point. Granted, each component may have a sweet spot where you have to set the gain higher on the pre to get the most out of it, but in general, I'd prefer to hear the sound of the power amp opened up than the pre.

As such, I'd much prefer to have a tube power amp and ss pre, if forced to make the choice, than the other way around.

D

My system is all tube, as is even the CD player which is the Audio Aero Mark II. The McIntosh 2102 glows well in the dark as does my vintage Fisher receiver. Together they heat my room which is appreciated in the winter.

Oh yeah; sounds great,too.

I'm with Unsound, and Karls for perhaps the same reason. I use to be all tubes, including cdp. Then I was convinced into buying the Pass X amp by an amp builder. These things run so clean, that I found all I needed for tubes was my trusty cdp.

I can hear every nuance of each tube I try, most being objectional.

I happen to like the ss amp crispness. There are a lot of sounds that don't approach life without it.

Reducing tubes to the signal source promotes the valve liquidity, spaciousness, and air, while not suffocating the music as an all tube set up of anything but the greatest.

Anyway, great tubes are having their prices pushed to the stratosphere by demand.

Its a discussion that has gone on for years since the advent of transistor from bell lab's, one a transistor is a current device, a tube is a voltage device, most transistor amps are directly coupled to the reactive speaker load and thus can produce extreem low frequency response because of the nature of the device and no output transformer to saturate at low frequency however a speaker is a reactive load, not a totally resistive which is another complete topic in its self, but in a tube amp in push pull configuration, the even order harmonics are cancelled out by the output transformer and since the transformer has a windings in the secondary it produces a better matching to the speaker load and not getting into audio transformer design and therory the transformer acts as a choke and a capacitor kind of like sponge it is able to asorb large peak current and not totally reflect it back on the tube its self to try and put it simply so the amp produces a soft clipping many other things take place in both type amps and it can be discussed for another 30+ years or so.
Both devices have have their place in audio, I use a transistor amp crossed over at 250 hz down for subs and from
100 hz and above I love tube amps mixing and matching can produce cool results in any system providing the frequency response is suited for the amp used.