[RWebb]

I disagree. The linearity bit is a canard.

Some audiophiles like tubes because although they often distort more, the distortion products tend to be psychoacoustically less irritating than most solid-state designs. I forget which but it is either mostly even or mostly odd harmonics.

Tubes also have a very warm, fat sound quality -- a distortion from linearity that is - again - psychoacoustically preferred by most.

One can design a solid-state amp that sounds tube-like - so much so that it cannot be distinguished in blind listening test by so-called Golden Ears. Bob Carver did that.

For a "cheap" tubey sound, you can use a tube pre-amp with a good solid-state amp. I use a Sonic Frontiers pre-amp with a Carver amp (Sunfire).