>>But before someone who is held out as our resident expert puts down a product or species of product (tube output CDP) I just think a bit of experience prior to pronouncement might be in order.
Hold on for a minute there. You know Alan's background...
Given his years in the industry, what do you think the chances are that he has not had solid listening experience with good tube amps ?
I'm not saying you have to AGREE with him, of course (although IMO you are reading more into his words than he probably intended when writing them), just saying that "lack of experience" is not high on the list of reasons for saying what he did.
As the other posters are saying, I don't think Alan was saying "tube amps are no good" or even "tube amps are not better", just "remember that tube amps probably are less faithful to the original signal, even if the overall result can be more pleasing to our ears and brains in some cases".
I know 20 years ago the conventional wisdom was that SS equipment introduced far less distortion than tubes, but that the distortion was somehow more "evil" than the distortion introduced by tube amps. I guess distortion was the cholesterol of the 80s
