Tubes? Transistors? Which are better?

I cannot agree with you more. Room acoustics have such a profound affect on a system. No matter how good the equipment, a system's sound can be wrecked by room problems. It is also unfortunate that to correct room problems, one must frequently spend a great deal of money demolishing and then painstakingly reconstructing the room. I also have a colleague in the Home Theater/Stereo System installation business and he tells me the same thing. People are not willing to spend the money on the room, they just want top notch equipment. When the client finally listens to their $150,000 system, they are not pleased. It is then that they finally understand the benefits of room treatments and listening room planning. It makes a great deal of sense to spend the extra money upfront when it is inexpensive to treat the room rather than later. It also makes sense to spend money upfront on elements that are difficult to change. A PreAmp or Speaker can be upgraded later with relative ease, the room is more difficult to upgrade after it has been completed. The absolute WORST thing one can do to a system is equalize or otherwise modify the audio signal. The room should be as transparent as possible - just like all the other pieces of equipment in the signal chain.

A very general response. Tubes in the preamp, transistors in the power amp. Of course it depends on 1000 things not considered in this response.

tubes!tubes!preferably se.transistors sond harsh,especially in electrostatics

Three things affect the sound quality you hear. First is the hardware and the differences between many offerings is very difficult to identify. Second is the music itself, and the quality of recordings varies greatly. Third is the listening environment: the acoustic properties of the listening room. Without adequate attention to all three matters, there will be no real audiophile satisfaction. Each element by itself simply cannot do what is asked.

Tubes. Listen to Conrad Johnson