Agree with Rlwainwright, except that there is one more difference, and that is that tubes clip very gracefully, rounding off the top of the waveform, essentially compressing it. SS amps tend to clip more abruptly, flat topping the waveform with a spray of odd-order distortion products. So the theory is that, if a tube amp clips now and again, it will barely be noticed, whereas if a SS amp clips, it is very unpleasant. The theory is very flawed, in that one should have the requisite amp power to drive the loudspeaker to the desired peak levels without either compression or flat-topping of the waveform, and that will require the same amount of wattage, tube or transistor.
Need help understanding tube wpc
My equipment has always been solid state so bear with me (i'm sure this has been asked before but having trouble finding the threads) . I don't follow the wpc differences between SS and tubes and how to match tube power with speaker efficiency to ensure that they'd be driven okay.
Thanks
Thanks