I agree with Audiokinesis. First you pick a speaker you love, then find a great sounding amp that is compatible with your speaker choice. That amp may be a solid state amp if higher power or ability to drive a difficult load becomes an important consideration (I personally don't like most high-powered tube amps, so if my speaker choice were different, I might prefer solid state amplification).
I've run my system, which has a single-ended triode tube amp, with a solid state preamplifier (Levinson No. 32). The sound was pretty good. However, I got a much better sound from a tube linestage (Emotive Audio Epifania) and tube phono (Viva Fono) combination. Does this mean tube preamplification is inherently better? I don't know. It just happens to be the case that this combination works better in my system. Perhaps there is a solid state component that would work even better.
The point is, the Levinson certainly worked well, but a tube alternative worked even better (albeit at a much higher price point).
I've run my system, which has a single-ended triode tube amp, with a solid state preamplifier (Levinson No. 32). The sound was pretty good. However, I got a much better sound from a tube linestage (Emotive Audio Epifania) and tube phono (Viva Fono) combination. Does this mean tube preamplification is inherently better? I don't know. It just happens to be the case that this combination works better in my system. Perhaps there is a solid state component that would work even better.
The point is, the Levinson certainly worked well, but a tube alternative worked even better (albeit at a much higher price point).