The best way I can say it is that the goal of "audiophiledom" is transparency to the source. My question is, which source, the recording or the actual live music that was recorded? I've heard, for instance, Duke Robillard play live. There's no way his latest CD sounds like that!
I maintain that our systems should disappear when we hear music. To my ears, vinyl and tubes do a much better job of that. On the other hand, if one is after a nice "hi-fi" sound with all its brittleness and glare, pursue SS and CD's. One is technically more accurate, one is musically more accurate. Take your pick. Now, in a perfect world, accuracy is musicality and vice versa. If you want that, buy yourself a set of Sennheiser HD600 headphones and forget about the debate. The biggest dilemma to me isn't tubes or CD's, but the room interaction. Until I can make my room sound like a live concert with a speaker based system, I'm opting for the next best thing - the harmonic integrity of tubes and vinyl.
I maintain that our systems should disappear when we hear music. To my ears, vinyl and tubes do a much better job of that. On the other hand, if one is after a nice "hi-fi" sound with all its brittleness and glare, pursue SS and CD's. One is technically more accurate, one is musically more accurate. Take your pick. Now, in a perfect world, accuracy is musicality and vice versa. If you want that, buy yourself a set of Sennheiser HD600 headphones and forget about the debate. The biggest dilemma to me isn't tubes or CD's, but the room interaction. Until I can make my room sound like a live concert with a speaker based system, I'm opting for the next best thing - the harmonic integrity of tubes and vinyl.