At the beginning only two words define this hobby :High Fidelity . Amplifiers overall are getting better SS or Tubes the good ones at least are getting closer to that simple goal: high fidelity .A good tube amp and A good tube solid state should not sound different when they are properly matched to adequate loudspeakers . Speakers and amps worked together.The thing is we have been all misled with adjectives with no technical meaning . In fact, when amplifiers get rid of their specifics distorsions they should sound closer to each other. A good friend of mine actually a reviewer got foul many times when I made him enter my music room blindfolded while he was always claiming that he could make the difference right away between SS and Tube. He kept failing the blind test.This was more than 15 years ago. Nothing really new. There are numbers of amplifiers reviewers rave about because the metal work look good or because they can be used as welding machine but not that great in playing music .That why blind tests have been always discredited by the pundits . Even the sweetest Beard monoblocs( 12E L84 per side what a great amp by the way on the Quad) were not enough to make him guess right more than one in three. Comparing new gear side by side in our own system ,changing one gear at a time would clear ours minds from the refrain « BEST AMPLIFIER EVER MADE « until next one comes for 10K more and if it is a tube it is likely an old design of the RCA manual revisited now.at 30k a Piece With better cap , better transformer or resistors very little engineering .
Why don’t tube amps sound like tubes anymore?
When I hear the latest tube amps I’m more reminded of what a solid state amp sounds like than what I remember a tube amp once sounded like. I say that, with most tube amps I hear today, but not all. Gone seems to be the lush tones, warm glow and natural harmonics I used to hear. What I hear is more of a thoroughbred, faster, sharper sound when I listen to a modern tube design today. Then why use tubes?