which of the three gives the best superb sound? pls enlighten me, tnx 
There are audiophiles who have resurrected single-ended directly heated valve or vaccum tube amplifiers as they have fallen in love with the" full-bodied" and "warm"sonics of valve amplification. These qualities have been accidentally revealed as more endearing in musical reproduction courtesy of more accurate and efficient speakers available today than they were 20-30 years ago. Tnese new speakers revealed early valve amps to be more listenable than solid state amps from circa 60s and 70s.
The excellent attributes are centered around the mid-frequencies as having body and presence. (Forget about the extreme highs and low frequencies which are hampered by the coupling transformers.) Thanks mostly to the even-ordered harmonic distortions that valve amps introduce that are pleasant to the ears and impart better sonic definition to vocals and musical instruments like violins and the piano as well as smoothens trumpets and other wind instruments that have more odd-order harmonics, hence grittiness, in real instruments. (These THDs hover in the 0.5% to 2% range.) Bear in mind that the original well recorded LP or disc does not contian these THDs.
In addition, valve amplifers exhibit soft clipping that accounts for much of the smooth and unabrasive sounds even at high volume levels.
On the otherhand, solid state amplifiers of today can generate more power than any valve amps and has all the attendant covinience benefits that go with solid state devices. However, ss devices introduce odd-order harmonic distortions that pile up from one gain stage to another that generally impart harshness to the sonics. Bear in mind too that ss devices, historcially, were never intended, by design or function, to be sound amplifying devices for hi-fi purposes. But their eventual enhancements in materials and configuration meant that today, ss amps exhibit virtually inaudible harmonic distortions, whether odd or even. At THDs of 0.01% at full power of 150 watts RMS, listening at half that volume guarantees inaudible THDs that is the objective of any hi-fi reproducing gear. Bear in mind that the original source does not contain these THDs. Hence, any gear that transparently passes these undistorted sginals is the desired gear for hi-fi sound reproduciton purposes.
There are ss devices found in more expensive gears that use MOSFET transistors in the power stages that imparts greater sonic qualities akin to those in valve amps like soft-clipping. The use of hybird devices enable the use of tubes in the preamp/buffer stages at the same time benefiting from the power gain of ss MOSFET devices used in the power gain stages. These hybird amps allow the best of both worlds to come to play in one gear.
But for many audiophiles, it's the gear that gives them the most pleasurable listening expoerience that matters, whether it's hi-fi or not, valave or ss. So it's your ears that will decide. Personally, I prefer hi-fi ss sounds.
