can a tube-o-phile be happy with ss?

I loved Chad's and Newbee's posts, had a similar reaction to Jadis like Loki1957 a few years back and completely agree with Bill.
After a few sleepless nights and finally throwing fiscal sanity completely overboard (following the late Harvey Rosenberg's suggestion what to do with the female members of your family, when the audiophile lust overcomes you) I settled both for a Boulder and a Wavac phono preamp. Both bought here used. Of course they sound different, but I would be completely happy with either of them. At the beginning I thought of reselling the one I preferred less but now I find that I use the Wavac generally with chamber music, voices and small jazz combos and the Boulder, which contrary to suggestions in their literature, I had to tweak with Walker's Valid Points to make it sound right for my ears (the Wavacs rest on SRA bases)comes into play with large orchestra, opera and generally when I want slam next to finesse. My subs are solid state of course, but my tweeters, the aCapella ion tweeters are tube driven.
So I run a happy mix of gear, the choice of which my ears decided for me. The discussion which technology is better is completely moot, I find. There are "musical" rigs and "hifi" rigs, rigs set up by concert goers and rigs set up by review readers, a distinction of course not made with a fine comb, but these differences are possibly more worth while to pursue and discuss, or music lovers versus gear lovers at that, than SS versus tube. That I use tube amplification with my Sound Labs, (VTL Siegfrieds and the Atma MA2 Mk3s) was more dictated by my choice of speakers than by any preference for tubes.

Lloydc wrote....

"I even prefer triode with no negative feedback settings, usually."

Maybe there are SS amps that sound like my VAC140's..but I doubt it. But I have a modified Accuphase P300 and could live with it as my only amp gladly. Although the P300 sounds lean in comparison to the triode....This particular SS amp has inner detail,transparency,and a smoothness that really suprises me...I like it a great deal. Yes....you too can find happiness....two is better than one. Btw What preamp do you use?

Wavetrader, I currently use an old AR LS-15/EAR 834P/Hagerman Piccolo. Budget constraints (the SEP-IRA is long gone.) Adequate, but...

Hi Lloydc,

I crossed back over into SS land a few months ago, though not entirely. I was all tube (DAC, Pre, Amp) and now have gone with SS Class A amp (s/hand Gryphon Antileon). My speakers are also Sonus Faber, so i get an organic quality to my sound from a variety of components. The Class A SS qualities in direct comparison to my outgoing CJ MV60 amp were surprising.

1. On a technical basis, i found the voice magic (organic, dimensional female vocals) was equaled, marginally bettered by the SS amp
2. Air surrounding voices and strings were also equaled.
3. The difference was in power and visceral slam. Now, i find myself listening to orchestral so much more, as a result of the improved soundstage depth and dynamic capability
4. At the same time, even though i know the "air" of both amps is the same, because the smaller tube amp did not have dynamics, the air came to the fore more, and with the SS amp, it recedes back as the dynamic capabilities come forth when you start to think about the quality of sound you are hearing...ie, you do not revel in the air as much even though in a direct a/b comparison, it is clearly there...because there are other qualities to listen to now such as the dynamics, soundstage width/size, etc.
5. I also find the SS to reveal more upstream changes, and as a result, i am now tube rolling my DAC. there is added detail that the is coming thru the amp, which means i now am upgrading from a Jan Phillips 6922 (which is highly microphonic, but surprisingly musical for $20/tube cost) to a Mullard ECC88.

and i just ordered a Mullard E88CC and Amperex 7308 to try out. (as an aside, i will say the Mullard ECC88 provides much greater solidity to the sound and detail, but to my ears and in my (slightly tempermental) Zanden DAC, the upper strings and upper piano registers are still somehow more musical using the original JAN Phillips 6922...shocking frankly.)

In sum, i finally found (after 12 months of intensive search) a SS Class A amp that matched my wonderful CJ amp (which i enjoyed for 9 years!) and gave me more...and further challenged the rest of my components to keep up.

And thus, the search goes on...;) As it does for so many of us. Hope that one person's experience helps.

Lloyd

Yes you can and I did.
I've had only tubes in my system up until about 4 years ago. The cost to retube an amp and the cost to purchase a new tube amp over 100 watts made me look at SS. There are a few amps out there like Moon and Pass that come close to tube sound, look around. I am staying with a tube Preamp though, I feel there is a large differance in the sound compared to SS and the cost to retube is minimal. So keep your tube preamp.