The watts are the same.
In the end as much as we audiophiles hate to admit it, its all about what distortions exist and how much.
Tubes tend to have higher amounts of lower-ordered harmonics (which sound like 'richness' to the human ear).
Transistors have almost none of the lower orders but tend to have more of the higher orders than tubes do. The higher orders (5th and beyond) tend to cause the amp to sound brighter and harsher.
Both are colorations.
Regarding detail, I have often seen brightness masquerading as detail. Its my opinion and experience that when you are really getting things right, you have detail together with a relaxed presentation. Generally that means that the system is low distortion, as the presence of distortion can mask detail.
I also feel that tubes are generally better at low level detail regardless. There are a lot of design considerations that make up an amplifier! So its at one's own peril to try to point at a reason why for something like this but my opinion nevertheless is the inherent higher linearity of tubes.
In the end as much as we audiophiles hate to admit it, its all about what distortions exist and how much.
Tubes tend to have higher amounts of lower-ordered harmonics (which sound like 'richness' to the human ear).
Transistors have almost none of the lower orders but tend to have more of the higher orders than tubes do. The higher orders (5th and beyond) tend to cause the amp to sound brighter and harsher.
Both are colorations.
Regarding detail, I have often seen brightness masquerading as detail. Its my opinion and experience that when you are really getting things right, you have detail together with a relaxed presentation. Generally that means that the system is low distortion, as the presence of distortion can mask detail.
I also feel that tubes are generally better at low level detail regardless. There are a lot of design considerations that make up an amplifier! So its at one's own peril to try to point at a reason why for something like this but my opinion nevertheless is the inherent higher linearity of tubes.