Describe ube sound vs solid state

Imagine you were dead and they were piping down music from a music server only you thought you were dreaming and the music didn't make any sense since it didn't sound like real music you remembered when you were alive. That's what Solid State Amps sound like.

Unsound wrote,

"Dollar for dollar through most typical loud speakers; high quality tube amplifying devices will more likely distort frequency response more than high quality solid state amplifying devices will."

The problem is distortion is overrated as a measurement of sound quality. So is frequency response. Gotcha covered. Lol. Besides, we found out back in the 70s and 80s that tube amps with 0.05% THD just plain sounded better than solid state amps with 0.0005% THD.

Lean Cuisine vs Porterhouse steak.

In many ways headphones are the most natural way to listen to music. I'll tell you why. There are no room anomalies to worry about. There are no speaker cables to worry about. There are no big honking magnets in speakers to hurt the sound. There is no crossover. You usually run Class A all the way. There are no (phase) issues with multiple speaker drivers. No issues with trying to locate the ideal speaker locations. No need for a preamp in many cases. Thus, the sound of headphones can often be more natural than speaker systems in terms of transparency, dynamics, inner dynamics, air and tonality.

Unsound, the music that your ears "collect" is actually the room- produced information like reflections and so forth, you know, the very things we try to tame or eliminate since they distort the pure sound from the speakers and which headphones don't suffer. Even more polarizing in the Speaker/Headphone debate, as it were, are Tiny Portable systems, even portable FM/AM radios, that have even less problems than ordinary Headphone set ups. I.e., no transformers, no fuses, no house AC, no interconnects and no internal wiring which, as fate would have it, like fuses is connected backwards 50% of the time. The speaker magnets and transformers are BAD in my world because they generate magnetic fields that distort the sound.

Headphones actually provide the pure clear unadulterated signal including the soundstage information that is captured during the recording. Why screw with that pure signal with extraneous room reflections, standing waves, comb filter effects, echoes, etc.? That's what I'd like to know about? It sounds like you believe the soundstage is created by room anomalies.

Gpgr4blu wrote,

"Funny how a good tube system is said to have many characteristics of ss and a good ss system is said to be liquid and have the bloom of tubes."

Uh, I'm pretty sure NOONE is saying SS has the liquid characteristic and bloom of tubes.