Tube or solid state

I like, and own, tube gear.  The amp, more than anything, determines the sound.  I think one should find the right tube amp first, and then use whatever linestage you have.  My preference, again will be tubed, but, the choice isn’t quite as critical as the amp.

So much of the sound of the amp depends on compatibility with choice of speaker, type of amp (single-ended, pushpull, output transformerless), choice of output tube type, and quality of parts (particularly the output transformers). Make good choices here and spend most of the electronics budget here, and the sound would be good with any decent linestage.

 Because most tube amp designs don’t really need gain or drive from the linestage anyway, it makes sense to buy a good integrated amp which is often not much more than a tube amp with a volume control, source selector switch and extra input jacks added to a basic smp.

I hang out a lot at a shop that only sells tube amps and preamps (not even hybrid integrated amps are sold there) and I have often seen new people come into the store and have what is close to a religious conversion experience—they had no idea music can sound so good—lively, engaging and fun.  Of course it is not just the fact that it is tube gear, it is the right tube gear playing the right speakers.  I have not seen the opposite: someone falling head over heals for solid state after living with good tube gear.

I also have seen good tube amps seemingly work magic with even less than terrific speakers.  That same dealer takes in all sort of trade-in speakers.  To test them, they are played with some amps you would never couple with such crappy speakers but those speakers can sound amazingly good with these amps.  We heard a small, old pair of Polk speakers sound great when matched to Western Electric 124 amps (350 B pushpull amp).