SS vs Tube: What do you hear?

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.

I matched the ARC LS10 flagship ss preamp (discontinued) with a Musi Reference RM200 (push pull) tube amp. Am very satisfied with the detailed sound but not overly luscious & expansive soundstage. amp & pre are balanced & to my ears provides a good mix between ss & tube. Also the Strightwire Crescendo interconnects & blacsilc spkr cables as well as ESP power cables made a remarkable improvement. And lastly the choice of tubes taylors the system very well-Mine being the JJKT88 since the gold lion/Genalac are just to expensive for me to justify-so far.

Depends alot on the synergy of all components. When I changed speakers to Dunlavy V's I had to get rid of the tube Amps. They just couldn't control these speakers. I like loud jazz fusion so the ss is the better mate. Both types of amps have their importance