You will hear a lot about ss sound and distortions vs tube sound and distortions. First, eliminate the stupid. A well designed and built amp will be wonderful, regardless of whether it is tube or ss. As Jmcgrogan2 stated, ss designs "typically" produce odd order harmonic distortions, where tubes produce even order distortions. This is only true so far as how the amps were designed. circuit designs can correct for distortion effects. it totally depends on how much effort and money the designers placed into their designs. So, please do not buy into the ss sound one way and tubes sound another way. you can have a tube design that is basically crappy circuit design, same as with ss. So, it is a combination of the actual circuit designs (regardless of whether it is tube or ss) and then you add in whether they "corrected" for particular distortion effects in the design. I have heard (within specific price points) ss amps that were much better than tube amps and visa versa (within the price points). At the upper end of the price range, i.e. rediculously priced amps, I would take either one. The ss amps sounded wonderful and so did the tube amps. One is definitely not better than the other. It depends on price, circuit designs and other factors. Please don't buy into the tube is better than solid state or visa versa arguments. Pick a price point, then go demo in your home, using your equipment the various amps and see/hear for yourself. depending on the amps, you will probably pick a ss amp and in other cases, the tube amp will make you smile.
stay away from the hype.
enjoy
