There is lot more involve reproducing sound stage depth. First and foremost is the recording itself. Audio chain cannot reproduce "depth" if it not encoded in to the recording. Most of my classical music recordings have excellent depth or front-to-back layering.
Speakers, placement, listening room, and listening position/height play a huge role reproducing this perceived depth. Amplifier comes next. I cannot comment about tube amps being better or worse reproducing depth. My Thiel 3.6 speakers are driven by SS amps (Mark Levinson 23.5 and Krell KST 100) and I cannot be more happy with the results of reproducing front-to-back layering. I use tube preamps (Cary SLP 03 and VTL TL 2.5) with NOS tubes. But I know friends who got similar results with SS preamps as well.
I also find that my LPs have more depth than some of the CDs. Past weekend, I was listening to Gustav Mahler's 6th symphony by Jascha Horenstein conducting Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. This is a 2 LP set and front-to-back layering in addition to left-to-right imaging was excellent. The Big Sound by Johnny Hodges and the Ellington Men is another LP with excellent left-to-right imaging and front-to-back layering of musicians. My rock albums have some of the worst reproduction of depth including Beatles albums. So it is not just one thing, but a combination of many factors.
Speakers, placement, listening room, and listening position/height play a huge role reproducing this perceived depth. Amplifier comes next. I cannot comment about tube amps being better or worse reproducing depth. My Thiel 3.6 speakers are driven by SS amps (Mark Levinson 23.5 and Krell KST 100) and I cannot be more happy with the results of reproducing front-to-back layering. I use tube preamps (Cary SLP 03 and VTL TL 2.5) with NOS tubes. But I know friends who got similar results with SS preamps as well.
I also find that my LPs have more depth than some of the CDs. Past weekend, I was listening to Gustav Mahler's 6th symphony by Jascha Horenstein conducting Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. This is a 2 LP set and front-to-back layering in addition to left-to-right imaging was excellent. The Big Sound by Johnny Hodges and the Ellington Men is another LP with excellent left-to-right imaging and front-to-back layering of musicians. My rock albums have some of the worst reproduction of depth including Beatles albums. So it is not just one thing, but a combination of many factors.