I think a lot of it depends on your speakers and what type of amp sounds best with them. Mine like lots of power. A year or so ago, I had a tubed CD player, tubed preamp and hybrid (tube input stage) amps. Very dense, rich sound, wonderful midrange, slightly rolled off but grainless top end and full, fat bass. I have gone to (almost) all SS gear, but had to get pretty good high power Class A amps and a pretty good preamp to make it sound good to me. I am currently doing an extended comparison between the tubed CD player and a SS player that also plays hi-rez dvd's. So far both players sound very good, but have slightly different strengths - a tough choice. In answer to your question, yes I like solid state better for my lifestyle. I am considering class A/B amps solely so I can leave them on for longer periods of time when I am not playing music. Since the tubed CD player only has two tubes, I do not worry about it so much, plus it has a switch that only turns off the tubes but not the electronics. As long as you are not trying to find solid state gear that "sounds like tubed gear," but rather can be happy with SS gear that simply makes good sounding music, then you may be fine, because such gear exists.
Switched From Tubes To SS???Glad You Did???
As the title says I'm looking for those who have changed from Tube Front Ends to SS(especially mid level gear)& am wondering if you've been happy with the change,what if anything you miss about tubes & what you've gained by switching to SS.Thanks guys,take care.