I’ve never done direct comparisons between tubed & solid state headphone amps but have many times over 40+ years w/ speakers albeit it never involved the recent super high solid state amps of $30 K + or so. We all know the negative aspects of tubed amps which are enough to turn off many folks ( heat, tube replacement costs, potential lack of full frequency extension at both ends in lesser designs etc.). The full bodied, rich, 3 dimensional sound w/ air & space around every instrument or singer in a good recording is very challenging for most solid state amps to achieve & im not sure if those qualities would be as apparent using headphones.
Is tube sound vs solid state easier to distinguish using headphones?
Well designed tube amplifiers and solid state amplifiers in general sound remarkably similar with a wide range of music. The slight holographic and imaging properties that tubes can allegedly portray over certain solid state designs is what brings people to the “tube sound” camp. My question for the audiophiles here is whether it’s even detectable in most speaker setups or does a high quality pair of headphones showcase the tube sound qualities more accurately due to their near-field nature?