wrote:

says...

I have heard these kinds of comments and often find that they are sort of an
urban legend similar to some who insist tube amplifiers sound better than
solid-state amplifiers. Double-blind tests always do them in (they can't
consistently identify the type of amplifier).

Which studies? I have been recording these amps for 30 years and they
sound different and many people "can" tell the difference in double blind
studies.

Filtering issues aside, you can only tell if you drive the amp into
non-linearity.

http://milbert.com/tstxt.htm

"Engineers and musicians have long debated the question of tube
sound versus transistor sound. Previous attempts to measure this
difference have always assumed linear operation of the test amplifier.
This conventional method of frequency response, distortion and noise
measurement has shown that no significant difference exists."

And how could it? But of course, if you are the sort who likes to
over-drive your amplifiers, then hey, the more power to ya. Or at
least to the inputs of your amplifiers.