solid state vs tubes--with a twist

If you go back about 10 years or more I would say yes. But now it seems like the trend is to get more resolution and detail-everything just seems to be getting brighter. To me this is a negative. For tube like sound I think the CJ solid state amps are a good bet. Some of the older integrated amps from England have a warm sound. The Creek 4330, Audio innovations Alto, and Magnum Audio are good examples. You can always go for a 1970's receiver.

cont.. Many of these companies have gone under and the ones that are still around have also become much brighter sounding to my ears like the newer Creek amps. I heard the "Heed" from the country of Hungary sounds sounds warmish. Maybe the Audio Analogue stuff from Italy too. You can give them a try. There sadly is not much new solid state gear out there these days that sound warm and/or tube like. Either the amp designers are getting older and are losing their hearing or too many people are going to too many loud rock concerts. :) I hope this changes in the future. Someone please design a warm sounding, analogue sounding solid state amp.