Separately it's hard to tell, but back to back it's easy.
I've had SS components that sound tube like, except when next to tubes.
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?