Tubes? Transistors? Which are better?

Carl, I do not have any reason to be biased towards Krell. I sold my Krell and bought tubes, I enjoy listening to them much more than my Krell. I still have some Krell equipment, which I do enjoy, but TUBES BRING ME MORE SATISFACTION. As for your statement "I CAN HEAR BETTER THAN YOU AND ALL YOUR BUDDIES THAT DON'T LIKE SOLID STATE" you are wrong on both counts. If you can hear better than me, you wouldn't make a statement like "...SOUNDED ALMOST INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM SOLID STATE...". Secondly, my buddies all prefer solid state and sometimes they even trash my tubes, but I'll continue to listen to whatever gives me the most pleasure.

If your tube amp brings you the most pleasure, then that's great. I'm sure if I heard your system, I'd probably think it's a good match for the rest of your components/room, perhaps. BUT YOU STILL ARE TOTALLY WRONG ABOUT KRELL, and if you heard my system you'd realize it. IT'S ALL IN THE SETUP. As for who can hear better than who...I can hear a 20 kHz sinewave from a test CD (and the artifacts that must accompany it from that limited medium), referenced to a 1 kHz signwave when it is at about 79 dB at the sweet spot (because my SPL meter's mic isn't accurate at the frequency extremes). I can also hear a CRT TV's 15.6 kHz sweep from the other end of my house. ALL I'M SAYING IS, just like all tube amps don't sound alike, neither do all solid state ones. PERHAPS THE KRELL YOU HAD WASN'T FUNCTIONING PROPERLY, or was a "lemon"...

Wolcott tube monoblocks are the best tube amp I have heard. They have an output impedance of ZERO ohms which gives a high damping factor. This gives you the bass control which so many tube amps lack. Solid-state amps rarely meassure below .0025 ohms. So your getting the sweetness of the mids and highs which is why your buying tubes in the first place and all the moxie in the low end.

A TUBE AMP WITH INFINITELY HIGH DAMPING FACTOR?? If that's possible, I'D LOVE TO HEAR IT. Let me borrow yours a while, why don't ya??

"...sweetness" mentioned above is nothing but the "coloration" of which tube amps are known for. You would have to spend some $$$ to find good tube amp. And then...it will sound just like good solid state.