Since all power supplies require filters that can only be made from capacitors, resistors, and inductors, we can speak to the differences inferred between "tube" and "solid state" supplies in terms of their few real differences, which can reside only in two areas: rectification of the AC that appears on the secondaries of the power transformer and regulation of the DC voltages produced by the PS after filtering. In the past decades, huge strides have been made in solid state rectifiers. It is my sense, after building or modifying several PSs, that Schottky diodes now can sound as good as any tube rectifier, and can outperform tubes in some ways (much lower voltage drop and faster start-up). I cannot hear the difference between a tube rectifier and Schottky rectifier diodes in one device where I have tried both, but maybe a slight edge to the Schottky. So that leaves voltage regulation, and this assumes that the voltage is to be regulated in the context of the PS. (Sometimes the regulators are placed on the audio chassis, close to active devices powered by the supply.) At the moment, all I can say is that a very well done tube regulator takes up a lot of space, costs more, but may sound a tad better than solid state regulation. However, the tube regulation is less reliable over the long haul. These are my opinions. It is certainly possible that the tube regulated version of the Allnic will sound better, not necessarily because of tubes in the PS but maybe so. I own a Silvaweld phono stage, also a design that came from Mr Park, who runs Allnic these days. In my Silvaweld, he used a tube rectifier in an outboard PS and tube regulation on board the audio chassis, takes up half the chassis space. It does work nicely.
