Can tube preamps be as 'detailed' sounding as ss?

I think so. I am amazed how much the choice of tube can impact the clarity of any piece tube gear

Boy i have a Minimax and a VERY revealing high efficiency horn system and that Minimax is QUIET!! I do have the newer version with the latest upgrades.Maybe they improved upon this problem?I also have great bass and detail.Don't think i would want anymore.

How about negligible harmonics that are not a product of the music?

Tubed circuits can be very fast and wide bandwidth. That is, IF they are built to do so. SS circuits can be very fast and wide bandwidth. That is, IF they are built to do so. As such, it boils down more to the goals and approach that the designer takes, not necessarily the topology.

Detail requires speed and "natural" linearity i.e. good performance without the need for gobs of corrective feedback. Both of these attributes are by-products of having a stable circuit that provides wide bandwidth.

Having said that, tubes are typically more prone towards having a higher noise floor. Tubes are typically more prone towards introducing microphonic based noises into the system. Tubes are typically less consistent in performance over an extended period of time. Obviously, these are all generalizations, but i don't think that even the most dedicated "bottlehead" would argue these points. After these factors are taken into consideration, most all of it becomes a matter of personal preference and system matching. Sean
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Zaikesman, I appreciate that you have a level headed attitude towards the sport. If you look back at my original post, you will find in the second paragraph the acronym 'IOW', which is to say that I was indeed commenting on the fact that many audiophiles accept brightness in lieu of detail.

I have a customer now that is objecting to the idea of a 'detailed' preamp, on account of he does not like brightness. So I am commenting on a very real phenomena (although I don't think you were objecting to that in my post).

I do think you were objecting to my initial assertion that many ss preamps get identified as detailed because the high/odd-ordered harmonics that they make (in very small amounts) are interpreted by human ears as loudness cues. This does happen to be a fact, as the human ear uses the higher (+9th - +17th) odd orders to tell how loud a sound is.

One time (30 years ago) I was servicing a transistor amplifier and had it on the bench VU meter. I noticed that when the amp was distorting heavily (malfunctioning), the -30db signal that it struggled to make sounded louder than the 0 VU signal it made when it worked correctly. I later found out that General Electric had proven in the 1960s the human senstivity to the harmonics just mentioned. Oddly, many audiophiles are not aware of this study!