[quote="Johnny Two Tone":1arafzqx]I wouldn't be too quick to disregard tubes. I have several tube driven devices - guitar amp, headphone amp, distortion pedal - and all have better drive characteristics than similar SS devices. Plus, changing tubes for different brands can yield quite different results, resulting in a wide variety of sounds with a simple tube change. My tube guitar amp, for example, sounds far better now with Tung-Sol pre-amp tubes (12AX7) and Tung-Sol power tubes (6L6) than it did with Ruby pre-amp and power tubes or the stock pre-amp and power tubes that it came with.