Last night while listening to my classic ARC D70Mk2 tube amp and Tube CAT preamp, a thought occurred to me. In some ways tubes are a PITA....LOL As we all know, tubes give off considerable heat, are sometimes difficult to source, can be costly to replace, are prone to numerous failure issues (more than ss) are subject to various construction variables and on and on. OTOH, for me they produce a sound that at the moment most -and perhaps all, ss misses. However, at the rate of improvement that ss gear seems to be enjoying, I wonder how long it will be before owning tube gear is simply not of any benefit whatsoever over its ss competition. Or, is this wishful thinking and ss gear will never match its tube competition.
Ok, let's hear it from the tube camp and the ss camp.
Ok, let's hear it from the tube camp and the ss camp.