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There are tons of recordings, now transfered to CD that were recorded with tube equipment.

Agreed.

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Solid state devices really didn't become availiable until the early 60's.

Agreed.

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Upon listening to any number of recordings recorded with tube equipment you would be astounded at the quality of the sound.


Agreed

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There are brand new tube amps made by many manufacturers such as Fender Amps. Solid state devices may have better specs but not necessarily sound any better in the final product.

I agree.

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That is why tubes are still desired by some.

While I agree that many people try to attribute most, or all, of the magic of these old recordings to "tubes", the fact is that there were many other factors involved, including the quality of microphone transducers, microphone placement, minimal signal processing, room acoustics, great arrangements, talented muscians, engineers, producers, and writers.

Yes, great recordings were made with tube equipment.

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I would not describe tube pre amps as cheap or low budget equipment.


I did not decribe all tube preamps as cheap, or low budget.

What I said was: "Be aware that tubes are often used as marketing gimmick in low priced audio gear."

Manley, Groove Tubes, GML, TL Audio, are all examples of high end, albeit high priced, tube gear. I won't point out the junkmeisters by name, I don't think I have to.

My point was, and is, that their are a number of outstanding microphones, mic preamps, channel strips, etc, that are not equipped with tubes.