[soundhd]

First I hope this is the "correct" section to post this....sort of new to this forum but could not find a "general" section to use so here goes....(I am sure there will be those of you that will disagree but that's what this "public" form is all about...I think anyway...)
I am pretty much an all solid state "guy" when it comes to audio reproduction, I have a back ground in Pro Audio (did concert re-enforcement and mixing) back in the early 70's to early 80's but also had a couple sessions working in a recording studio so I have been exposed to both sides of audio recording.  I have listened to a hand full of nice tube home audio systems and with all of those it seems like no matter how it was "tweeked" it seemed to change for for all definitions or "smoothed" out the sound of the system and that's where I have a "problem" with it....
A lot goes into making a recording, song writer writes the song (just the lyrics or the music or both), a demo is made, a record company "rep" or a producer somehow gets exposed to the song and somewhere along the road it is decided it is worth spending the money to make a recording of it.
So the recording process starts...the songwriter and/or artist, producer(s), record company rep's and recording studio personnel all get together and come up with a plan to record the song and/or songs.  An awful lot goes into the process, the producer (if needed) brings in session players to help record the basic tracks, vocal tracks (if needed) are added, "production" work starts by adding any needed effects, changes made to the tracks (if needed), engineering the sound, basic tracks are mixed, final mix is done then it is all sent off the the mastering studio to be mastered then the master is sent off to the record company where they setup and manufacture the final "product"....
So you an see what all goes into making a recording and how it "sounds" when completed, which brings me back to the subject of tube vs solid state..... so why "change" the way the recording sounds?  As one can see "they" (all of the above) go through a lot trying to get the "product" to sound a certain way (which does also include the use of tube gear for trying to get a certain sound coming out of an instrument [usually a type of guitar]) so why change it....
Again this is an opinion of "one"   

[navi]

Personal Taste in the end.

Tubes Vs. Solid State
like Coke vs. Pepsi.

[Digi-G]

Well, most of us don't know what the "original" sound was.  We're just trying to reproduce what we think it should sound like.

Also, I'm guessing that all studios aren't built the same and don't sound the same.  I'm pretty sure many of them use different amps and speakers for playback.  Like you said, some use tubes, some solid state.

So when you say "why change it"?  I don't think the question, or more specifically the answer, is that easy.

I think most of us feel our home systems are some sort of compromise.  I've got about  $10k US in my system.  Most studios are considerably more.  My system is in my family room, which I don't really mind, but it would probably sound better in a dedicated room, or better yet a specially built room.  I've got other furniture in the room and a sliding glass door.  Compromises.

So the product they created is going to sound different in my room, on my equipment, than it does at your house.  How do we know which one is more correct?  Unless you were involved in the recording and heard it in the studio... we don't know.

Why do some songs sound bad regardless of what they are played on?  I'm thinking of Go Now by the Moody Blues, for example.  Didn't they listen to playback in the studio?  They thought it sounded good?  Good enough?  Did it actually sound good in that studio??  No one thought to say "Hey, the vocals on this recording are overmodulated and it sounds like shite"?

And like the other poster said, personal preference plays into it as well.  I don't think most people are actively trying to 'change' the sound of their recordings, just trying to make them sound as good as possible.  And I don't mean one song by one artist; I mean all (well, most) songs by all the artists of different genres that I listen to.  Rock, acoustic, country, progressive, old and new etc.  It might be easier if I only listened to one type of music but that's not the case.