Tube or solid state

@earthbound

I guess they would say, you’ve never heard great ss. I never have I know I’ve heard this 300b and oh my!!

People simply like what they like.There are listeners who are thrilled with their SS components and I say good for them. Each of us has to find and obtain what is best on a personal basis. It appears that the Western Electric 300b tubes are serving you well. That’s good to hear.

Charles 

@earthbound

As I mentioned, I’d hate to give up this sound. This 300b is so easy and relaxing to listen to.

Fortunately you don’t have to give up anything . Occasionally you’ll come across a bad tube, it happens. A good quality designed, built and implemented tube component just provides a very natural, believable and emotionally satisfying/involving listening experience.

I would say particularly so with a high quality SET/PSET such as yours. Upper tier 300b tubes are expensive . The trade off is their longevity and superb sound. Keep doing what you are doing, it is yielding  you much musical joy and happiness. Isn’t that the entire point of why we listen to music and crave the experience?

I have had a 101D tubed line stage and 300b SET pairing since 2009. My utter satisfaction and joy with this is as high as it has ever been. I now have added a new DAC which contains 7 tubes. This combination is providing me the best transparency and authentic/natural music presentation I’ve ever heard from my audio system. Unadulterated musical bliss and realism. @earthbound , stay the course.

Charles

@invalid 

I used to think the same thing about tubes as spaceguitarist until I actually used some tube equipment in my system

Perfectly understood and appreciated. As we both recognize, this is a “beaten horse “ debate. In the end each listener settles down with what suits them best. Spaceguitarist does his thing and good for him.  No doubt that you’ll continue to do what has worked out best for you.  I’ll let it go at that.

Charles

And what of "the real thing" that never was, but instead was assembled in a studio using digital instruments, analog synthesizers, sampling, etc.?

Maybe there is/was no "real thing."

If this mindset/reasoning works for you, stick with it. Many different perspectives and viewpoints. I understood @invalid comment. I listen to live music performances pretty often and have developed an ear for live acoustic instruments. More often than not, tubes come closer to mimicking that type of sound presentation.

But that’s just my experiences. If yours are different, that’s also just fine. We all individually choose what suits us best. For me tubes generally sound more natural/realistic. For you probably not. It’s all good . Be yourself.

Charles

personally, I’m ecstatic with my solid state gear,  nothing to mess with, no tubes popping, taking. Out a midrange, plus, you can if your home, leave them on 365.

Terrific!!

Key to long term satisfaction is choosing what sounds best to “you”. Just please yourself. Exactly why such a huge variety of audio products exist in high end audio.

Charles

@invalid 

If it sounds closer to the real thing than transistor amps then it doesn't matter what wave you measure.

+1,

Often the simplest answer provides the most truth and clarity. 
Charles 

Count me in with those preferring tube-tube signal path. In context of the OP topic, I’d go transistor-tube rather than tube-transistor. In reality you can enjoy success with either option. However, I agree with larryi in that the tube amplifier provides more of the “ tube” effect/influence than a tube preamplifier.

My preference assumes compatible speakers with a good tube amplifier. Some speakers are designed with the intended partnering with transistor amplifiers. 

Charles