Tubes vs. SS is personal. It depends on what you want/prefer/can afford. And what your system demands. I had vintage Marantz SS amp and preamp. Moved to McIntosh SS amp and preamp. Moved to McIntosh tube amp and preamp. Love my tubes! No reservations. I have horn speakers. The horns prefer tubes. I can’t deny my speakers what they want. (The heart wants what the heart wants.)
That said, it’s 90 degrees here and muggier than the inside of an Okefenokee-Swamp crocodile’s mouth, with the dew point sky high (and no AC in my listening room).
Don’t ask…
So: My tube amps are silent tonight.
Some smart people have both tubes and SS.
The part of what you've said that impresses me is 90 degrees, swamp-like humidity levels and no A/C. I'm old enough to remember when such things were normal. As a child, my mother took me sister and me to the town pool or the beach every day during the summer. Eventually, my father put in air conditioning. It was still expensive and a luxury then but he found a way, working with a buddy of his who was an electrician to keep costs down. Those are special memories. My parents were backwards in many ways but they worked hard to provide for us and were very steady in that sense.
As for tube versus SS, I hope to eventually experience the difference. I was born in 1963 so I grew up at a time when having a nice stereo was a valued luxury but most of the gear was already SS. My family had relatively cheap stuff. My parents had good but not great speakers (can't recall the manufacturer), a good not great 20 WPC receiver (maybe Kenwood?) and the same for a turntable and cassette tape deck. I had a different system in my room, but it was way cheaper. It was 10 WPC and the speakers were crap but I loved it because I loved the music. We didn't worship the gear then. We'd listen on anything we had. My system was better than many of my friends had.
My parents had friends who had a much nicer system. I think they had a Marantz quad receiver. I don't recall the model. Just the dial with the heavy wheel and the beautiful lights. Also, the father of that family was an electrical engineer so he valued higher-end gear and they had the money to indulge, because it wasn't cheap in those days.
Had I been 10 years older, I would have been exposed to tube gear as a kid. As it was, I remember the warmth of the sound of our systems -- all of them. Even the cheap one in my room. Very different than modern gear, which is far more accurate and precise. Maybe it's nostalgia, but I prefer the older gear. And I have been able to afford to acquire some nice stuff which, back then, would have been very expensive. I have three Marantz receivers -- a 2270, a 2230 and a 2235. Also a Kenwood, a Realistic which sounds surprisingly good and some more modern stuff that I don't listen to anymore.
If I get a chance to experience tube gear and like it, I'll spend what it takes to get some. I've gone to the last store in my town where one can listen to newer gear. I listened to a system there that was tube driven. It really didn't do anything for me. None of the new stuff did. It lacked the warmth I love in my older gear. I hope to get a chance to listen to well restored vintage tube gear at some point.
