I've had a couple of tubed cd players and they sounded great. It's just that some people are too neurotic for tubes because they constantly obsess over whether the tubes are deteriorating or always thinking about rolling in new tubes. Same with vinyl. I've seen audiophiles so focused on cartridge alignment and VTA, VTF, antiskate, record cleaning, etc that they can't just enjoy playing a record. So decide what type of person you are before venturing into tubes.
