Tube or solid state amp or amps?

Mrtennis I agree with you that there are solid state amps that can be ear piercing when poorly matched but there are also warm sounding ss amps that can appreciate a tube front end without the nasties. With some experience one can make a call as to what preamp to match to a ss amp and what interconnects to use to either increase brightness or reduce it. Send me a power amp and I'll know after listening to it what I need to do to make it sound the way I want. I have two large bags of interconnects and can choose from that what I need to make corrections. Someone once said in the threads, give an audiophile an amp & he can build a system around it.

Good post Phd, but I much prefer to build a system around a preamp and speakers. And only a half a dozen preamps out there cut it for me vs. so many many great TT's, CDP's and amps. It all starts with a tube preamp.

Jafox, thanks for the kind words. You are mostly correct, I can appreciate what you just said & that is your preference as it should be but I was focusing my attention on this thread which is about amps. Actually I built my system around my speakers. I suppose one could build a system around speaker wires, if your an idiot.

Bostonjim - Congrats on the CATs. One of my 3 favorite systems at CES this year used a pair of CAT Monoblocks (along with a Reimyo CD player, forget what pre and Ascendo speakers). Rock solid bass, clean natural midrange, powerful and engaging sound. Beautiful to look at, too, with all those big tubes in the open.

Mrtennis - I remember you once posted that you like dull, boring sound (or similar words). Have you ever heard tube amps by AtmaSphere, JJ, or CAT? I suspect you would not like any of these, as they are rather lively and engaging sounding. On the other hand, you might prefer the sound of old Hafler solid state, as I remember, it had a definite laid-back quality. Hovland's solid state has a very easy-to-listen-to quality, which you also might find appealing. Perhaps there is one aspect of sound that you are focusing on that is more prevalent among solid state than tube gear. If that one trait is the most important thing to you, I understand your point, but I have not found such a distinguishing trait that universally identifies ss vs. tube.

So many unknown variables around, but I think, at the end it is very important what type of music you typically listen. If modern rock, pop, blues - electronic music - than solid state perhaps a good option, if classical music: tubes are somewhat better re-creating tonal shades of life acoustic music.