Surface Noice, yubes and solid state

I don't know exactly what you read about the subject, but I think that you may have misinterpreted, somewhat, what you read. I think that you are referring to a phenomenom first observed and written about by Harry Pearson of TAS. He observed that, as you point out, lp surface noise is treated differently by tubes as opposed to ss. But he further observed that it is not that tubes produce less surface noise (think about it, it is the turntable/arm/cartridge/lp interface that produces surface noise, not the amplification components), nor reduce it. It is that surface noise as heard through a tube based system is heard as occuring or existing in a different "plane" than the music content; it is somehow removed from the music content. With solid state amplification, the surface noise is more interwoven in the fabric of the music content, and is thus more objectionable.

I completely agree with this observation.