Tubes are great for preamp use, but solid state amps control the bass much better. I have had some very good tube amps and none of them produced quality bass, too sloppy. I would stay away from loudness controls, I’ve had a couple in the past. I had the same problem in a smaller room, low volume, no bass, turn it up for good bass, too loud. Got a couple of rel subs and tuned them for low volumes and they still worked when the volume got louder. Now you can get remote controls for your subs so you can adjust the bass for any volume
will changing to solid-state make the bass in my wilson sophias better at low volume?
I've noticed that my sophias really shine when they're cranked up a bit, which is great, but I'm wondering if I can't get more of that, esp. the bass, at lower volumes. my tube amps (Cary Slam-100s in triode) are ~50w/ch, more than the 25w/ch minimum wilson recommends. it seems to me that I could either get a sub or try a solid-state power amp. it'd be easy enough to try either/both, but I'm curious what people have to say. thanks!