Again, Kevin, what power level, what kind of tube amp - class "A", "A/B"? I mention this because tube amps have extremely different distortion behavior than solid state ones. Since the 'knee' is so broad at the level where distortion starts to increase, you can 'measure' just about any distortion you like, depending on the power level. Tube amps have comparable distortion to solid state at levels below this 'knee', which occurs near full power. Also, as you probably know, tubes have almost no distortion components beyond the 3rd harmonic, which is musically related (the octave + a 5th) In addition, and this is not well known, the phase of the distortion components is not corrupted relative to the fundamental as it is in solid state: they are in their proper in-phase condition, unlike solid state, which corrupts the phase of what distortion it produces. This is one very big reason that even comparatively small levels of distortion in solid state amps sounds objectionable. Tube amps have a far 'richer' biasing into class "A/B" than solid state, which produces less distortion at the crossover point in a push-pull amp: this must be made up for by high levels of negative feedback in a solid state amp. Tube amps use _much_ less global negative feedback than solid state, and avoids TIM (transient intermodulation distortion) entirely, unlike solid state. And finally, tube amps have power supplies which can store easily an order of magnitude more energy than solid state by virtue of the higher power supply voltages utilized relative to the filter capacitance. It would be all but impossible for a solid state amp to have enough filter capacitance to compete with a tubed amp in this respect. This means that tube amps do not modulate their power supply nearly as much as a solid state one.

And, do you REALLY think that I would use an amplifier that had as much distortion as you say in my system, which is used for critical listening to master, edit and mix music? I don't think so.

You still did not give specifics as to the actual amplifier (s), that Stereophile et.al. measured, and under what circumstances they measured them.

I really don't care if you like tube amps or not. What I object to is throwing out blanket comdemnations about something you have not actually had _direct_ experience with, having only read it in a magazine somewhere. How would you feel if I told you that a particular component _you_ have can't possibly sound good or be of any use as an _accurate_ sound reporducer, and have as my only backup something I read. I really am surprised you are willing to throw out opinions on something you obviously don't care to research, much less care about.