Why don’t tube amps sound like tubes anymore?

I think it depends on the amp and also tube type. My first tube amp was a c-j Premier 11a I hated that amp it sounded like SS to me, and I swore of the 6550 tube then and there as well. Overall the trend has been to greater transparency and frequency extension but there's still gear out there that sound like tubes.


Tube rectification is a good place to start also I would never buy an amp with SS rectification.  My amp which was built by my dealer has a mix of modern and vintage parts and sounds very tubey in a good way. It uses vintage output transformers and output transformers are another key component.


Class is another issue some tube amps are Class A some are Class AB. Class A will sound warmer and more tube-like. Also how the amp is wired triode vs ultralinear. Plenty of variables, also in a very general sense higher powered tube amps will sound worse i.e. less like tubes.

I was thinking about this more and what I like about my amp is not that it's warm and "tubey". It's that instruments and voices have more tonal color and saturation. They are more dimensional and seem more "there". That about sums it up to me.