I have ued solid state gear in the past. NAD pre and with a NAD 2200 amp. Also I have used various yamaha gear. A friend let me borrow a pair of asl waves. I thought over all they sounded better than the NAD 2200. I do miss the midbass and bass punch of that amp. Shocked that a 100 dollar tube amp sounded better to my ear than SS gear. I decided to continue with tube gear. On a budget I bought the AMC CD player with tube output (sounds good when working). Next I found an AMC preamp with tubes. This piece also sounds good. Overall to me the tubes with high efficiency speakers is the ticket. ( I would really like to venture into set 2a3 or 300b etc.) The velodyne sees to uses in my HT room with quintets (Talk about a mismatch) and as added punch in the music room. I listen to mostly guitar driven rock such as Tom Petty, Dire Straits, Clapton Dave Alvin and punk music Social Distortion Rammones etc. The velodyne adds extra punch.