Tube will always sound different from solid state as digital will always sound different from analog. They are inherently different in every way. Digital will never be able to produce the smoothness of an analog sine wave. So you choose what you like best and your tastes will probably change over time. There are positives and negatives in these types of audio playback and I guess it comes down to what am i willing to live with? The higher end systems generally do most things better but then it comes down to your room and component matching.
Tube versus SS
Since I just installed some rather expensive NOS 6922 Telefunken tubes in my Phono-preamp, that yielded outstanding results, I decided to compare CD to Phono.
From the best of "Jacintha", CD, I selected "Danny Boy". Her voice emerged deep center stage from a jet black noise free back ground. It sounded more like what I expected from the analog.
That was followed by special LP's of Dinah Washington that had recently arrived. Those LP's were everything I expected with the NOS 6922 Telefunken Tubes in the Phono, but the surprise was the fact that I couldn't tell the two apart; both were outstanding.
What may surprise you, is the fact that I attribute these outstanding results from the COVID 19 "lock-down" which has given us the quietest "grid" ever in history. That means those of us with lesser means have the same AC power as the richest who can afford expensive AC power "clean uppers".
BTW, I have made extensive comparisons to recordings made before and after, the lock-down that confirm just how much of a difference it's made. I must admit that I had doubts about expensive power conditioners, but this confirms that fantastic results come from taming the wild AC.
It's my belief that we can not achieve better results than we have from the current "quiet grid", which means power conditioner or no power conditioner, we are all presently getting the same results.
Could it be that the dominant factor when comparing tube and SS when they both are of comparable quality is "The quality of the AC"?