Subaru, i am still pissed-off at you for bashing the Vac Avatar, and now this!: "...tubes are great in a low-powered situation, like thosde great old radios of the 50s..." Just kiddin' dawg, i hope you are too?! Still, last time i listened Aleph 3, the bass was sloppy and midrange was recessed (is that imitation of tubes?) and it didn't sound very good to my ears despite stellar Stereophile review. Never mind the midrange, but why bass? Tubes, as tubes are might be pain in the ass, but what they do, they do it right and where matters most.
From tubes to solid state. What do you loose...
...if your priories are transparency, timbral acuracy, micro dynamics and soundstage? I am hesitant to give-up on my Sonic Frontiers Power 2, but buying tubes every so often can be quite expensive. The current tubes offered (Sovtek, Svetlana, EH) are short-lived and not cheap either. I will probably stay with tube pre-amp and go with the ss amps, like Mark Levinson...?