As far as the audibility, that is essentially up to what comes after the rectifier, i.e. the amount of filtering and regulation in the rest of the power supply.
Cannot disagree more strongly. No amount of filtering and regulation can make a solid state diode sound like a tube.
There are simple reasons why SS and tube rectification are not easy to compare under equal settings. Most tube rectifiers tolerate a very modest amount of filtering capacitance connected directly. If a large capacitance bank is necessary there are two choices: it can be separated through either resistors or chokes. The resistor approach brings other complications such as a long time constant and voltage loss. The choke approach works perfectly, but the added cost and weight of a nice choke discourages most designers.
The very best sounding glass diodes use mercury vapour but unlike luminescent lights these have been condemned by the environmental lobby. Unlike many vacuum rectifiers these have a low and constant voltage drop of about 5v.
The future most probably belongs to synchronous rectification, which thanks to advances in automotive charging systems is becoming more widely available. Most of my SS equipment already made this transition and soon hopefully the tube equipment will follow. It is only a question of time high end manufacturers wake up to this approach.
I had in mind the other way around; adding a regulator after the tube rectifier and initial decoupling capacitors,
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