Hi Greg!
 What you say is true, tubes are still prefered by many, but most often
solid state devices can do the same job much more efficienctly, and
without requiring adjacent rooms for your "electronics", like the
computer on your desk. Made out of tubes, you'd need to at least double
the size of your house.
 The origin of this discussion was around making analog to digital
conversion using tubes...While someone has already done it, does it
necessarily give digital recordings that warmth that people attribute to
tubes.
BTW, a guitar amplifier is not strictly an audio type of device, it is a
musical instrument and the choice of components and the way they are
used are strictly to make the guitar sound good. While both guitar amps
and audio systems use many of the same components, the end goal is
radically different. Audio systems are supposed to be transparent to the
signal source, guitar amps intentionally distort and have other than a
flat frequency response intentionally, to make the guitar sound right.
Bonnie *:>
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