high power tube amps vs ss

Atmasphere, are you comfortable telling us which in your opinion are the 5 ss amps that come close? Just curious.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Science is not an absolute either. Did the scientists of a thousand years ago believe what the scientists do today? How about a thousand years from now? How is this so and do we know what we are actually measuring? Talk to a physicist. Everything is subjective and always will be. Best, real, accurate, etc. only have meaning between our ears. I prefer to try to think in terms of different and pleasing or not in regards to music. The best ss amps are often described as having tubelike qualities and visa versa. There's that word best again. Says more about the way we think than anything else.

Atmasphere, I am interested to see what you have. If you can't pull up my email you'll get a personal response from mine in a few days.

The odd ordered harmonics are perceived as sound pressure level comment is interesting to me. I recently switched from all tube amplification to a very good tube preamp and very low distortion and high current solid state amps. Musical transients are now much more impactful and realistic spls are acheived and not perceived as loud, (lack of odd order harmonic distortion?)Very happy with the results with one caveat. Using my sound meter I am now regularly listening to music in the mid 90 to low 100 db range and starting to get some evidence that I'm affecting my hearing. Maybe I was better off with the even ordered tube harmonic distortion satiety at about 10 to 15 db less sound pressure level and not going deaf. Go figure.

I naturally, and I bet I'm not the only one, tend to turn up the volume until I perceive the "sweet spot". Since odd ordered harmonics are our sound pressure clue, their absence (relative term), with very clean reproduction will tend to promote increased listening levels. It does not sound loud even though it is. My solution, since I listen several hours daily, is to use a sound meter to monitor spls. I'm using a free droid app. Sometimes I even pay attention to it.