Hmm, I'm with Woodman on this one...

I've spent more than a few days demoing various tube amps hoping to find one that will just blow me away. Aside from all the impossible to prove rhetoric, I haven't heard any Tube amp that had an ability to make a recording sound like "live music" as opposed to just a recording of such. Same with SS, to be honest.
I meet alot of audiophile types who have some sort of emotional, nostalgic attachment to Tubes, and then others who are dead set against them. Myself, I demand proof, first hand, with my ears to believe that Tube amps are superior to Solid State amps of equal price. I haven't heard it yet, though, many sound AS GOOD to me, some sound great, but nothing better.

I laugh at people who suggest otherwise, then fail challenges using their own equipment to validate these claims.

I am a musician, I play alot of live venues...The sweetest amp I've ever heard playing through VR-1's sounded like utter hi-fi compared to being at a live show. I have personally challenged many people to invite me to listen to their systems so I could hear this phenomenon of transforming playback to the real thing. Most back down, the few that don't admit later that no system can ever be as good as a live venue, no matter how exotic the gear. At present time, nothing even comes close.

I passionately loath the term "musical" as a descriptor, to me this means "I hear something you don't, whether real or imaginary". And I laugh at the suggestions that hi-fi gear of any design (as of this date in history) can match the sound of a live performance.
What is "musical"...at what point does something become (or not become) musical, what value of resistor, what size of capacitor is responsible for this phenomenon.
Why does one audiophile passionately insist his Krell is more "musical" than his friends "McIntosh", and vice-versa?
Thoughts?