Any good reasons to use transistor phono stage and line level preamp instead of tube ?

No!

I can't think of any. Okay, maybe one, you can leave it on 24/7.

Anything a tube can do, a transistor can do the same thing - and never wear out!

There is no such thing as a "tube" sound or a "transistor" sound! Contrary to what the untutored believe!

Disclaimer: I use both tube and transistor gear. Either sounds equally good!

I have both tube (Manley Chinook, Jolida JD-9) and solid state (Musical Surroundings Nova Phonomena) phono pre-amps.  

The size of the units may be another factor to take into consideration. 

The Phonomena takes up less space than the other units, but on the other hand I can stack a turntable on top of the Jolida.  There are of course some very small tube units like the Project Tube Box and large solid state units. 

I leave my Jolida JD9 on most of the time by the way.

My space is limited and size and form always play into my decisions.

For very low signal they are much easier to keep things quiet than using tube amplification.  I am a big tube fan.  I do use a tube line stage. Ralph Carsten has commented on this before 

Sound quality is different. Not better, just different.
From a practicality standpoint, transistors trump tubes every day. Lower power, longer life, lower noise (usually) vs. tubes.

Is a particular transistor phono pre better or worse to your ears than another tube phono pre ? That's a judgement call between you, your ears and your wallet.

Best,
E

Tube phono stages are going to more susceptible to RFI if you are near a radio tower. In other environments maybe no issue, but when I lived 1000ft away from one, four or five tube phono stages all gave me trouble. SS phono stages all eliminated the radio signal that rode along with the music and could be heard between tracks and during quiet passages. For years I've stuck with tube line stages and ss phono stages and am happy with the approach. Cheers,
Spencer

 No tubes usually means less maintenance and no cost of replacing tubes when needed.

SolidState has more accurate imaging and more precise.
a well designed Solid state preamp,or phono stage 
if using very good parts quality thecapacitors resistors and a transformer based unit can sound very Tube  like and have lower distortion , but at a cost $$.  I sold both, Vacuumtube is less complex to build  and tubes has a more forgiving nature. Matching your speakers, cables, electronics has a Big say in final decision.

Transistor based phono stages are better for the aforementioned reasons and because they don’t produce even ordered harmonics, which while pleasing to many ears are a fault of tubes. 

Nope.

Transistors do not sound like tubes.  You can get tubes to be very quiet.  You can get tubes to produce sound similar to solid state in impact, dynamics, clarity, imaging, and more precise, etc.

"Anything a tube can do, a transistor can do the same thing - and never wear out!"

Not true, transistors cannot reproduce dimension of soundstage like a tube can.  You cannot get a 3D image from transistors.

Happy Listening.

There is convergence to the universal.

Roberjerman:
If only what you say about tubes versus transistors were true.  My life would be simplier.  But it isn't true.

inna, as has already been opined, there is a fundamental difference in the sound of tube devices vs solid state. It is true that as one gets closer to the SOTA in either technology that difference becomes more and more subtle; the two will tend to sound more and more alike. However, to my ears that fundamental difference in sound still remains to a lesser degree. Whether one sonic signature is “better” than the other to your ears is a personal call. To my ears good tube (pre)amplification tends to preserve more of the qualities that I care about most in the sound of live music: closer to correct timbre, dimensionality and tonal density of images; and, most important to me, micro dynamics that are more realistic which is what gives music a sense of aliveness. However, as has also been pointed out, tubes can be a pain. Totally worth the effort to me.

I see & hear in my system no good reason to; why? I have tubes in my Phono Pre, CD player & in the preamp section of my Hybrid Integrated. SS takes it from there in the power amp section of said integrated. It is the best of both worlds & after much trial & error, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Positron tubes are hard to come by. At least, harder than PNP transistors.

So I thought - no good reasons. More funds and effort, that's all.
frogman, you are a rare guest outside that music thread.

But at the highest level, what can compete with tubes, Gryphon/FM Acoustics and other Swiss ? Who else ?

I'm in the middle of a amp test drive at the moment. The test is not to choose between tubes or SS. I am a fan of both but tend more to favour tubes. I agree with some of you in here that you today can voice a tube amp to sound as a SS and the other way around.
inna: I have a Kinki Studio EX-M1 integrated for test - this is a SS that compete with several amps priced to cost many many times more. I'm impressed of what this amp deliver or rather do not deliver - because it is pretty hard to define it's signature sound other than neutral. I know that they have a preamp to that use a lot of the same technology and some extra features.......this amp or pre amp could be the answer to your question. Rgs M

Here is an interesting article on this subject!
https://medium.com/collectors-weekly/could-an-old-school-tube-amp-make-the-music-you-love-sound-bett...

I had been using an Audio Research phonoamp and was reasonably happy with the open airy vibrant appeal of tubes. Now I have always used Klipsh Cornwall’s and  have never been left wanting. Until a friend was upgrading his system and he had offered me a loan of his Plinius 14 phono. I was very impressed specially in bass response, needless say I am still using it on a permanent basis. Now I do have a tube pre amp that the Plinius is connected to. The bass region is just great with just as much openness and staging.

I have tube monoblocks and a tube preamp (Conrad Johnson), but went for a solid state phono stage (Pass Labs XP-15).  For me, it strikes the best balance of price/performance and gives me a sound that I really like.  Space is a bit of a consideration, along with limiting the number of tubes I need to stock or worry about getting.  But, I have had my CJ tube gear for a year and a half, and have only had to change a couple of KT120's along the way.  I have found the CJ amps and preamp to be very easy on tubes, and I have at least 500 hours on the gear by now.

Happy searching, matching and listening.

yogiboy, good article, thanks for the link.  I especially liked this passage:

The problem, Hansen believes, is that people are too fixated on the gear and not enough on the experience the gear is supposed to provide. “Don’t be thinking about how the treble or bass sounds, or this or that detail, the ‘soundstaging,’” he counsels. “None of that matters. After the song is over, ask yourself, ‘Was I completely sucked in? Did I forget about everything else?’ Or were you thinking about the bills you need to pay, the deadline on this article. If you can get completely lost in the music, then it’s a really good stereo system. It doesn’t matter if it’s tubes, transistors, or a hamster on wheel. All that matters is that you got lost in the music. If you’re listening to music and your system doesn’t do that for you, your system is broken.”

I have all solid state (Bryston amp and preamp) and my system does the above for me. Right now I'm listening to "Man in the Wilderness" Natalie Merchant from Leave Your Sleep.  Its wonderful!

Im with bigkidz, I have always found good tube gear to image and soundstage better, more 3D. 

I have solid state (Whest PS30RDT) and valve (inbuilt Atmasphere MP-3) phono stages.
The Whest is dead quiet, very smooth, detailed, has a huge soundstage, and layers like crazy. It does big stuff incredibly well, and is my go to for rock, electronic, classical.
The Atmasphere is definitely noisier (faint valve rush at low volumes) but once the music is playing it's not noticeable. And its not quite as controlled on the really big stuff. But it has a texture and grit that I find more lifelike, and is simply gorgeous on smaller scale, acoustic, jazz, and human voice.

I love them both and use them both. But if forced to decide on one, I think I'd go for ...... nah, not telling :-)

To me live music sounds warm, no high order harmonics there to give your ears that unidentified edgy sound. Supposedly tubes convey the music with less high order harmonics. So there's that.
For some it may be a bit of a pain to search out and implement the right tubes, mixing and matching to find the right combo. For me it's like cooking up some gumbo. When the ingredients are spot on just can't stop eating. Last night I ate for about 3 1/2 hours. Delicious.

Laissez les bons temps rouler
gumbo good! 
Transistor good
Tube good 
listening to derek and the dominos on wax, great! 

inna,
The reasons you listed are pretty good reasons in & of themselves. I get great 3d imaging & a wonderfully textured presentation (as well as pin point imaging, even at the edges) with a modest audio alchemy PPA-1 with PS-5 power supply. Prior to this I was using a Sonic Frontier signature, for years. Much more detail (without being bright or harsh) with the AA. Haven't looked back. 

To my ear, tubes done right sound closer to what it should be, so ideally I would have a tube power amp as well.
I am also a tape guy and some noise from tubes is like some noise from tape, it doesn't bother me, but sure the tubes and the amps must be first rate. Hunting for right NOS tubes may not be much fun but they last long in phono stages and preamps, and you don't need many of them.

There is no such thing as a "tube" sound or a "transistor" sound! Contrary to what the untutored believe!

This statement is false although it should not be...
Transistors make more higher ordered harmonics than tubes do, that that is why there is a tube/transistor debate. If there was not 'sound' there would be no debate.

Tube phono stages are going to more susceptible to RFI if you are near a radio tower.

@sbank
This statement is false. Tubes are no more susceptible to RFI, if anything they are less so (because they don't have diodes integral to their construction that can rectify RF). Its really a design thing, whether or not the designer paid attention to RFI issues. So do, some don't.

Ralph, I love you to death and you're the last guy I want to get in a pissing match with.
So let's just leave it at the Atma-Sphere MP3 I owned 1000ft. from a radio tower didn't bring me the musical joy that ss phono stages did. The same can be said for the Joule Electras, K&K and other tube phono stages that I tried in that location over 12 years. The MP3 picked up less radio than the Joule, that's for sure. 
If a tube phono stage in my budget existed that could overcome that damn radio tower, and let the music shine, I sure couldn't find it. Not for lack of trying. Cheers,
Spencer

@sbank

Nevertheless my statement is true.

FWIW we've done a lot in the last 18 years or so since you had your MP-3 (yes- it really been that long!) to eliminate RFI susceptibility in our preamps. 
Tubes are actually less susceptible than solid state; this is because solid state devices employ diodes in the junctions of the semiconductors. So a solid state designer really has to be aware of RFI issues. With tubes you can often get away without because there is no diode inside a tube to rectify RFI and make it audible. Until of course, the RFI is so powerful than other elements in the circuit do it anyway. Because we had to meet EU directives (CE mark) and because people like you occasionally live by radio towers we had to do something about it and we did so years ago- in fact your experience underlined to us that there was a problem and so we had to address it.

I find transistor phono stages sound "harder" than the tube pre-amps. I've had both and I keep going back to tube.

Rollin

@atmasphere , that's a worthwhile improvement, good for you! Maybe after ~20 years it's time for a model# change? Cheers,
Spencer