SS vs Tube: What do you hear?

ditto for me. Like the tube pre-amp/solid state amp approach. instruments and voices seem to gain a "body". Not that solid state sounds bad, just different. I think solid state may measure better in some areas than tube such as distortion measurments, and with solid state there is no tube to replace periodically..but good tube units measure adequately, and tubes can last a long time. The sound is different slightly and you owe it to yourself to see if it makes any difference to =YOU=

SS goes boom boom boom real loud with lots of watts. The clean, clear, smooth sound of a tube amp is far superior to the irritating harshness of SS. SS gets very raspy quickly while the sound of tubes continues to sound good after listening for any extended period. You can change (roll) tubes for different sounds. You can't change a transistor.

i think the tube pre/solid-state amp is the way-to-go, if yure on a reasonable budget. you *do* have to spend big-bucks on a tube amp that will not sacrifice what solid-state amps do well, but this is not true of tubed preamps, imho. my electrocompaniet amps will stick w/my melos tubed preamp until ed mcmahon shows up w/my big check so i can go out and get those monster tube amps - after donating a sizeable portion to charity, of course... ;~)

I find that tube amps sound more natural... Strings ripple like the instrument is in your room, voices are clear & detailed. My VTL Amp also pumps out lots of clean detailed & controlled bass. I find that the smoother high end of tubes less fatiquing to listen to. Caution some tube gear is very detailed & can show flaws elsewhere in the system. My Luxman SS pre(c-1010) Sounded great with the matching Poweramp (M-2000). But the pre did not cut it with the VTL ... The Luxman all tube Cl-35 MK-III is magical . Look for vintage gear... The Scott 299 series intergrated amps are Awesome ! with phone & Headphone sections that put many current pieses to shame !

Solid state preamps can sound great objectively, but tend to have a mechanical presentation, whereas the best tube pre-amps reproduce the organic quality of real instruments and voices. But I differ with many above and prefer a tube power amp over a solid state amp any day. I don't see them in the same ball-park unless you have a pig of a speaker to drive and a small budget. I have tried a large number of solid state power amps and the only sweetness they ever achieve sounds utterly artificial to my ears. Give me the real honey, not saccherine.