Could this be one reason tubes (and perhaps records) sound better?

I don't know much
But I know I love you
And that may be
All I need to know

.....   Linda Ronstadt, Aaron Neville

It seems like the problem facing audiophiles is that we feel like we know it but at the same we don't really know it.  Everybody has their own theory of "why", but can't seem to put a firm finger on it.  Like some unexplained instincts or something subconscious that is fooling us at the same time confirming us.  

How do we resolve such conflicts?  On the one hand, hearing can really be complicated (otherwise we would know it by now), on the other hand, with the current advance in technology, it's a bit unreasonable to ask for more.  All the equipment that can measure down to sub pico second so not sure if more sophisticated equipment will do any better.

Anyway, it's lunch time...

Before science, people when looked up the night sky at the milky way and thought that the milky way was sort of like a backbone, a backbone of the night sky, and if without it, the night sky would fall down on earth and could end all life. Now we know better but probably still not enough. Quantum physics is all but a stop gap measure until something better comes along. Things we though we knew too well in the past, now turned out to be false or at least only half true.

"I think therefore I am". Indeed, trying to see "reality" has been man’s quest since the begin of time. But the more we know about "reality", the more elusive it has become, and now there are people who are even doubting that we will ever be able to know the actual "reality". Even the question itself is absurd as if asking what is "infinity" as if there is such a thing other than it is just an abstract human concept.

So why is tubes are more "musical" than solid state? Hm ... I am afraid it will be "I hear therefore I am". Maybe someone will devise a test to figure out what that is. I think I’d give up waiting for it before giving up trying to find God (or Goddess if you're horny like me :-))

We need to come up with agreed to standards, benchmarks, yardsticks.
Not measurements only, but points of reference that we can agree on.
Then we can explore together and come back with real improvements.

Don't stop believin'
Hold on to that feeling
Streetlights, people
Ohohohhhhhhhhhh

Journey.

If the signal path is absolutely clean then there would not be any need for the added white noise.  But alas ... our digital gears are full of "correlated high frequency" noise.  Some DAC intentionally have "white noise" added to mask or lessen the effect of "correlated digital noise".  

Hiss and pops and clicks and other forms of tube and record noise are not white noise

It can get complicated. To make a general statement can lead to over-simplification.  Are those "hiss", "pops", and "clicks" occurring randomly?  That's something to think about.

I think we've reached another low when we have to rely on mice for our audio gears :-)

Also we have to outlaw "copy and paste" :-)

... which is why experiments are recreated, for validity. I am struggling to see any merit in your advice to someone who wants to experiment.

Go ahead Mr. 24/7 lols.

Personally I would not recommend intentionally generate white noise in your listening environment.  There is a difference between what happens in the laboratory environment and your own.  Just because they said so, does not mean it's true.