VACCUME TUBE OR SOLID STATE

[Pumpkin_Man]

Hi Folks:

I have spoken a lot about cars, motorcycles and cameras, but I never got around to posting an off-topic thread about another thing that I really love. Stereos. I really love good music, and in order to really experience music to it's fullest, a good stereo is a must IMHO.

Now I have owned a lot of gear over the years. I bought my bery first CD player in the Summer of 1985, which is pretty much when CD players were in their infancy as a consumer product. At the time my stereo system was a Radio Shack (Realistic) 45 watt per channel intigrated receiver. It was also a solid state, and I thought it sounded great. I also had a Denon solid state system after that that produced 115 watts per chanel into 8 homes driven. It, too, was a fabulous sounding solid state stereo, but nither of them could even hold a candle to what I have now. I decided to switch over to the older vaccume tube technology. I did that because tubes just plain sound better. I have a Mesa Baron that can put out 150 watts per chanel. That's not very much by today's standard, but with a good efficient speaker, it can shake the house. I also have a vaccume tube "Sunfire" classic preamplifier, and a Sunfire 600 watt perchanel solid state power amp additionaly. That amp works so well with the pre amp that you can not tell the difference at all.

Solie state does give you more power in a smaller package, but I still think that tubes sound better.

What do other stereo enthusiasts on the forum think? Dy you prefer tubes or solid state equipment? Why?

Mike