An encouragement, which I attempt to follow myself when offering what I feel is indisputable advice, knowing that a certain percentage of the Agon population will no doubt disagree, to add "YMMV" or the phrase, "IMO" or similar to the post. It is relatively easy to avoid needless offense when making a strong statement if a bit of respect for those with differing opinions is given. :)
I have been guilty a few times of making absolute, harsh, or critical statements without adding that caveat to buffer the criticism, and the result has been predictably negative, rancorous. I am trying to be consistent in that regard now. I encourage our people who hold strong opinions and feel that they have some special insight in regard to systems to show some consideration about how they provide the community their opinions.
Now, in regard to the OP, I don't see anything terribly earth-shattering about the issue. Not surprising at all to me that SS/tube and perhaps what we could call variant specifications yield divergent opinions on performance. The spectrum of performance, the variety of systems, and the preferences of listners/reviwers is SO vast that I would be shocked if such things did not happen!
I recall being at a reviewer event where a new product was on demo in various modes. I thought the whole thing rather insipid as to the performance change to the system between modes, and I suggested that the change in modes was no greater than I could achieve with a change of a power cord or two. The other reviewers were effusive in their praise for the sonic changes, so I was distinctly in the minority. I couldn't help but think the reaction was overdone in a bid to solicit a review.
While I wasn't impressed by the different modes, I thought the unit might be interesting to review for other reasons as to its design, as it is unknown in a solo demo how it might compare to other products. But, the experience reinforced the fact that there is a WIDE spectrum of experience with components and there will be no universality to perception of their performance, even among reviewers regardless of specs or purported superior performance modes.
And finally, my contribution to a happier world; YMMV :)
