"Don't get a tube amp if you want neutrality..."
I have put my EAR 890 against 3 well regarded S/S amps with mostly non-audiophile people. The EAR won every time, most recently with my brother and sister-in-law who don't know the difference between a tube and transistor. After 2 hours of going back and forth they decided the tube amp was the most musical. This was hard for my brother who loved the appearance of the S/S piece. He thought the giant heat sinks were the coolest thing ever seen on a piece of electronics.
Not sure what people are saying when claiming no tube amp can provide "neutrality". Kind of like entomologists who, for decades, claimed bumblebees should not be able to fly based on scientific understanding of physics and flight. They recently discovered why but for years held bumblebee flying as a mystery. There are many tubes amps that musically soar on a regular basis.
I have put my EAR 890 against 3 well regarded S/S amps with mostly non-audiophile people. The EAR won every time, most recently with my brother and sister-in-law who don't know the difference between a tube and transistor. After 2 hours of going back and forth they decided the tube amp was the most musical. This was hard for my brother who loved the appearance of the S/S piece. He thought the giant heat sinks were the coolest thing ever seen on a piece of electronics.
Not sure what people are saying when claiming no tube amp can provide "neutrality". Kind of like entomologists who, for decades, claimed bumblebees should not be able to fly based on scientific understanding of physics and flight. They recently discovered why but for years held bumblebee flying as a mystery. There are many tubes amps that musically soar on a regular basis.