This type of statistic came from the fact that tube amplifiers go into clipping steadily and gradually, while SS amps do it more digitally (on and off.) While it is true that a watt is a watt, you can push a tube amp further with fewer sonic and electrical problems than you can a SS amp. Most guitar amps are low powered tube amps for this reason. They can be overdriven more "elegantly" than solid state. Electric guitarists appreciate controlled distortion. My own opinion is that audiophiles with low powered SET amps have the same appreciation.[emphasis added]
In other words, tube lovers really love adding distortion to the sound, rather than having it as it was recorded.
This is a very different thing from having a guitar amplifier that distorts, as very often the distortion is part of the music (as, for example, with Jimi Hendrix in many cases). But to play it back with the amount of distortion Jimi Hendrix intended, one must have equipment that does not add any more audible distortion to it.
In reality, adding distortion is exactly like adjusting tone controls or turning up the subwoofer higher than what would give a flat response—it is altering the original to suit one's tastes. There is nothing wrong with doing that, of course, provided one is not deluded into believing that one is reproducing what was originally intended. The delusion that the sound is more "pure" is a problem, not the actual alteration, if one likes the alteration.
