Tube vs. Solid State Amplifiers

Anyone ever hear an ASR Emitter II Exclusive? When I inherited a sum of money from my beloved Auntie, I decided to buy a stereo that would punch above it’s weight class. At first, I considered buying a flagship McIntosh tube preamp with two flagship McIntosh Solid State mono blocks but the overall cost was more than I wanted to pay. I then considered a tube preamp and two tube mono blocks from an arcane Serbian amp maker. However, I was uncomfortable about spending a huge sum of money by buying equipment from an Eastern European company that I wasn’t sure would exist two years after my purchase. Plus the cost was three times that of the McIntosh combination. It just so happened that I called Zed at Musical Sounds and he offered me a generous discount on a new ASR. Next time I get an inheritance, I will trade in my current ASR for the newest version. The ASR sounds neither like solid state or tube but it has the best features of both. And while there are other amplifiers that closely match the build and sound quality of the ASR, they had a starting price of around $46,000.00. Also, the ASR needs no preamp. 

I've had both solid-state and tube amps from quite a few manufacturers. In my experience a good tube amp has been my preference however I've heard some pretty ridiculous statements made about tubes. Output transformers and quality of parts play a huge role in the quality of the sound and your experience with the components. Find the sound that you like or want to achieve and then find a way to get there through either one of these solid-state or tube amplifiers or preamplifiers. 

Watts are watts, tube amp just deliver more!
Amps are rated against fix loads (8, 4, 2) but speakers aren't!
Speaker impedance varies a lot, for a single driver it can be 8 Ohm at 200hz but raise to 48 or more at 40 Hz and at 16 or 32 at 15KHz. Multi way speakers tend to be conceived to maintain a leveled impedance but it is never completely flat.
Since Power equals Voltage Square over Impedance, P=V2/R.In a SS amp the voltage rail is fixed and if the impedance rises the power dissipated in the speaker is reduced.In a tube amp, the tube acts as a voltage regulator. Under rising load, the tube will reduce its internal resistance to allow more voltage to be drop on the load thus maintaining or increasing the power output.

@felixa - interesting explanation

In a SS amp the voltage rail is fixed and if the impedance rises the power dissipated in the speaker is reduced.In a tube amp, the tube acts as a voltage regulator. Under rising load, the tube will reduce its internal resistance to allow more voltage to be drop on the load thus maintaining or increasing the power output.

Until I started using a Nagra PSA solid state amp from Switzerland, I thought my tube amps were the best. Similar to what people are saying about the AGD, the transparency is even better and the Nagra has what my tube amps never did. In my experience, at least.