In reply to:
A good (modern) tube amp, on the other hand, reproduces music beautifully and gives up nothing to its sand based rivals.
Nothing? Not even accuracy?
Going back to the car analogy, when I push the gas pedal 25% of the way down, I expect the car to accelerate at roughly 25% of its capability. When I push the pedal all the way down, I want it to accelerate at 100% of its capability. A solid state amp will give you linear, predictable results. A tube amp, however, introduces fluctuations in frequency response, so pushing the pedal 65% of the way may result in only 63.89% of total acceleration.
