I own the M3 Sapphires and they sound superb with solid-state gear also. My McIntosh MC402 amp, at 400 watts per channel allows the speakers to reproduce dynamics and mico dynamics with ease and a deep, fast bottom end with detail and ease no matter how deep they have to go. My preamp is solid-state also, a Mark Levinson 326S. Very natural, music just follows from it with no highlighting nor false detail. The source is Marantz SA-10 SACD/DAC with the music mastering system. Cables AQ Firebird XLR I.C. and speaker wire, power cords Dragon on the amp, Hurricanes power cords on the preamp, CD player, and PS Audio P-12 AC regenerator used on the front end gear only. I grew up on tubes, love tubes but they are not always the end-all, well-designed solid-state gear can sound as musical enjoyable.