Of course from what I know about tubes (and I do have a fair amount of tube gear that I really enjoy) they add more noise and distortion than solid-state so some fine detail seems to always go missing. The strength of tubes as I see it is in providing a smooth musical presentation and the better tube pieces don't lose that much detail... but compared to the near-state-of-the-art DirectStream they seem to lose a fair amount of musical nuances. And the big plus for DirectStream is that although its topology is solid-state it provides a very non-fatiguing, musical performance... akin to tubes, but without losing the fine details.
It all DEPENDS on the component. I replaced SS mono with tube mono amp and it's dead quiet now. No more hiss in both speakers, transformer hums and much superior sound even in bass region.
I also have a tube pre and dac and both are dead quiet with excellent details.
My brother has DirectStream and he's very happy with it. He has no urge to replace it anytime soon.
