"soundhaspriority" wrote in message
...

Well, it's not obscuring my thought, but it may be obscuring what I want
to
know. Let me ask you this: Are we at the point where all
pleasantly-sound-modifying mics, preamps, etc., are available in solid
state
equivalents? I hope the answer is yes, because the only piece of tube
equipment I like to tinker with is my Tek 555, which has 131 tubes

Not at all. All of the pleasantly-sound-modifying solid-state pieces sound
different from one another, and they sound different from the
pleasantly-sound-modifying tubed pieces, which also sound different from
each other.

Gear which aims at neutrality begins to converge as the technology improves;
gear which doesn't aim at neutrality can go in a hundred directions, and
does.

Sooner or later you'll have to do some trying, with a friendly uki, either
at a dealer's showroom or via internet order from a place that will let you
return what you don't like. (This latter dealer will not be a cheap as a
dealer which doesn't let you return stuff.)

Peace,
Paul