A question regarding "tubes"

"Do all....".

Nope, not all, by a fair margin. Its all stereotyping.

Some tube amps can be fairly competent in both highs and lows, depends a lot on the interface with the speakers to which they are attached. In pre-amps and CDP's its more about a different type of sound than bass or treble energy.

I could as easily ask the question do all SS amps have exagerated damping which prematurely removes the trailing edge of signals making the bass seem tight but concurrently creating a cold clinical sound thru the mids and etched overly bright seeming highs.

But FWIW, as a gross generalization, its as tough a trick to buy inexpensive tube products with tight bass as it is to find inexpensive SS stuff that doesn't sound cold and clinical.

Hope that helps a bit.

Aball, You posted while I was typing.

I find your question interesting and your observation about 'matching' right on. I've had a BAT DK5 for some time and I always was less than happy with it, not unhappy mind you, just thinking it wasn't worth all of the loot. I recently picked up a Cary amp, warm in the bass and detailed in the upper mids & highs, but not 'bright' - great midrange. Perfect sounding combo? Not quite, but FWIW does it ever float my boat. Now if I could just get the bass from the Cary a tad tighter! Clearly its all about synergy. :-)

Maybe its time for you to think outside the box a bit. First I doubt that you will ever successfully optomize one system for both digital and analog, at least I haven't. Up until recently the digital always took second place. Until recently.

Short story - I bought a Wadia 302 ran it thru my main system - it was very good but really was not a great improvement just a little different. Then I connected it direct to a tubed PP amp. Huge difference! Slam, detail, dynamics, etc all without an apparent downside. I now have two seperate systems and one set of speakers. One system for digital and one for analog (and other sources). I now actually prefer the simplified digial system over my analog system. Maybe I need a better analog system now, but/or I can probably even do better with a better CDP or amp, but I'm happy as hell as it is. FWIW!