Solid State was 'better', until it wasn't.
1967, bought a Fisher 200T SOLID STATE Receiver with Wedding Money. Sam Goody's told me it was a big improvement over Tubes.
Now, as a kid in the late 50's, we had a TV with tubes, I was the designated 'slapper', I just had the touch to know where and how hard to slap it to get the picture to straighten out. So it was natural for me to say good riddance to tubes, and it did sound better than anything I had before that (better TT, better cartridge, great FM, and AR-2ax speakers)..
1973, inherited my Uncle Johnnie's Fisher President II made in 1958, ALL Tubes, a lot of them. I tested all the tubes, got new as needed, turned that sucker on, OMG, it's been Tubes for nearly forever.
I did use a very powerful SS McIntosh Pair given to me (MC2250 amp and C28 Preamp) for a pair of inefficient speakers for a while, but went back to these current speakers (drivers from the Fisher President) and Tube Preamp and Tube Amp.
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When MC cartridges were new, they all required a pre-pre amp, and ALL hummed. I didn't try MC until I upgraded my system during covid in 2019. AT33PTG/II with a Fidelity Research Vintage SUT, zero hum!
MC is better. I risked buying some vintage USED MM cartridges with rare cantilever designs, .0005" microwall beryllium, beryllium tubes, sapphire tubes, and found how great they sound. I like MC and MM equally.
Straight Wire with Gain. What BS, gimme my features back!
Extended Bass. Keep in mind, this is for my small or medium listening space: I chased 'extended' bass (bigger volume/rear port), and spikes, ...
First, spikes made NO improvement and took the freedom of alternate toe-in away.
And I and many of my friends think my speakers/space benefit from my rear ports closed (behind 15" woofers in 6.83 cu ft). I think too much low mono bass, (and all the omni-directional reflections of that mono bass) in a smaller space are actually detrimental.
'Normal' bass (from a big woofer) and the overtones of those bass notes become directional, and the subtleties and decay is more readily revealed. You will have more respect for Paul McCartney's bass playing when listening to Sgt. Pepper's on Reel to Reel.
Oh yeah, tape: it has more noise, bleed thru, deteriorates over time. BS, my pre-recorded R2R tapes, only 7-1/2 IPS are my best content, everyone, without exception picks tape over vinyl (after thay have picked vinly over CD). My older 2 track stereo tapes (content limited) sound even better. My friend's 30 IPS 2 track tapes are 'what they were hearing in the studio'.
