Listening to tube amps, I don’t hear the effects as desirable like some people do. It does seem though that a solid state amp can be made to sound much more like a tube amp than the other way around. So, I’m told you can run the output of a low powered SET tube amp through a voltage divider and into the input of a solid state amp, and then run the solid state amp out to the speakers. What you get is the sound of the tube amp sans its interaction effects with the speaker, which it is now buffered from by the solid state amp. So you’re hearing your tube amp playing into a very stable and high impedance load, which is what it would prefer. The real, messy impedance load of the speaker is much better handled by the solid state amp.
A Black Box to Solve Everything
Tubes vs. solid state?? There's a thread out right now about this exact question (there always is), but I didn't want to take it off subject. So my question is; is there a device that could go between the preamp and amp that has variable harmonic distortion capabilities? I know there are tube buffers, but they are not really addressing the point because they use line level signals and don't have the distortion of a good 300B tube being pushed beyond its limits. My thinking is that of a black box with switches and knobs to adjust harmonic distortion to mimic different tube types. It would also have to have a bypass switch so we could readily and quickly A/B the thing. Any ideas?