What is a better route, tube or SS preamp?

In this hobby hopefully you'll eventually be able to try (own or at least audition at home) many different designs which will eventually refine your personal taste.

At my age the idea and practicality of lightweight and powerful solid state has been a hopeful search from the first 60's A/B to todays class D switchers. Underneath this silly quest was the reality of the second order harmonic presentation of tube amplifiers that I grew up listening to in radios and televisions from the fifties.

I came full circle last year and purchased a pair of affordable Bob Carver VTA 180s. Cool running, easy maintenance, and more than enough top to bottom power for todays speakers. Having rolled my third set of input tubes their presentation evolves, something that can't be done with solid state.

Don't get me wrong I'm not plugging tubes I'm just enjoying them, again. I still have a pair of Hypex nCore 400 switching amps in my studio. Nothing like a massively powerful solid state amp. Keep in mind what those people are using to make your favorite hard and heavy music.

Mrmitch, the sound of music live. Actually, coupled with the right speaker systems (with subs) many of the modest systems we all own can get quit close to live sound.

The problem is not exactly with our play back equipment it's the generations of production and processing of the media we are listening to.

As a Bass player I'm in recording studios often. What I hear from the original track recordings, analog and digital, is remarkably life like. The digital files sound even better at home on my system.

Once those same files begin the mixing process the degradation begins. It takes another hit in mastering, yet again in pressing / burning, and distribution can't help.

Those high dollar master tapes you may experience at a show have, at the very least, been mixed. Even so you might be able to get an idea from them.