Anyone permanently convert from tubes to SS?

I can live with the Class A Pass Aleph and XA.5 series of amps - they are the best SS I've heard, though I suspect I would also like the Ayre gear as well. I own an Aleph J, but will always keep a tube amp as my primary amplifier. Having both is good, but if I could only have one, it would still be tubes.

I did the tubes and Klipsch thing, then I heard B&W's and switched to SS. Musical Fidelity preamp with Bryston and Classe amps. No tubes needed.

"If it has no moving parts it is a solid state device. A tube amp moves electrons though a vacuum"

....I think I will move my electrons thru air to the nearest bar there they will became static and unmovable for receipt of a vodka-tonic with flashy positrons on the side, dragged by the dranken bartender with very sold and state credentials.

Not sure about "no tubes needed", but I would say with B&W SS is needed. Some speakers B&W, Thiel, Vandersteen seems to need what SS can do and don't thrive with tubes because of their need for high current and drive into the low frequencies. The speakers you own has a lot to do with whether you get better perfomance for tubes of SS.

Here's one for you to ponder - Gary Pimm, a very well respected EE & audio designer (http://www.pacifier.com/~gpimm/), has a solid state version of his Tabor tube amp which he prefers. The tube Tabor is a very highly considered power amp so the SS version must be startling. His design & comments are found here http://www.pacifier.com/~gpimm/solid_state.htm

A quote: "This is a very nice sounding amplifier. Totally quiet on my 95dB speakers. Sounds very much like the tube version of the Tabor but cleaner. No hint of "solid state sound".

I suspect the cleaner sound is the lack of microphonics of the 6AU6 input tubes and the directly heated output Pentode."