Tube Equipment: Gimmick?

Once bitten by tube and can't go back to transistors.
SS more accurate is overrated. I agree that it can have lower distortion level but music is not based on distortion level. I recalled that amp rating was based on distortion level back in the 80s. Now come to think of it, it's really a joke.

The REAL advantage of 8X10 is super sharp image ( thx to German Optics.) and Super Large negative size. In photo equipment, the lens and image output size are the things we care for. It has absolutely nothing to do with camera body. You can use a real light meter to measure the lighting condition so you don't even need a "super" camera body. Digital photography is a totally different subject.
There are lot more electronic component involved.
To compare a film (tube gear) vs digital (Solid State) gear is a good analogy.
We now have fuji's 20 megapix medium format camera vs say 8X10 camera. The 8X10 is still better overall. The Fuji can be sharp but not as refined as film at this time. It doesn't mean that digital will not get there but we're not there yet.

You always have take your own physical sensitivity into consideration. Visual is always more acccurate than hearing and easier to proof. Hearing on the other hand is very subjective due to the nature of our ear. You always have to ask yourself how to define beauty and what sound good to you.

Back to Tube gear vs Solid state. IMHO, I would say the top 30% of tube preamp are pretty good. However, I would say maybe only the top 5% of tube preamp are pretty good. However, if you look at the cost factor, the SS always at least 2 to 10 times more expensive. The manufacture understands the market strategy and they've decided to jack up the price on tube gears too. The tube preamps are no longer cheap these days because the SS has inflated the tube gear due to poor performance from SS.

If someone give me a free $5000 SS preamp and force me to use it exclusively (which means I can't sell it) then I will not take it. I rather pay my own to get a tube preamp because I can't appreicate the "beauty" of the SS preamp.

A typo here. It should have been "top 5% of SS preamp"
Another thing I would like to add is: There is almost nothing new in SS preamp. Most of them use JFET and Op-amp to amplify the signal. However, many manufactures are more focus on the new generation of hybrid tube preamp. I always found the tube has bigger sound stage and better image seperation due to the physical nature of the tube with larger plate ( more information gets transferred ) than the condensed transistor circuits ( more complicated but compressed.)

If you have not heard the top of line tube preamp then you can't really claim that SS preamp is more accurate (it might be true on paper but it is not true in sound.)

For amp, it is another story. I think the top 20% of both tube and SS amp are good. However, the SS counterpart always cost $$$$$. Depends on your speaker requirements, some outrageous power hungry speakers can work better with SS amp. On the other hand, the super high sensitive speakers only work well with tube amp.

Stop attacking each other and make yourself look like a 3 year old bully. No Gimmick in tube equipment. You just need to own both and figure out what your ear and brain want.