I love old radios - the best of them were designed by engineers, not accountants. It is true that some solid-state designs can be better than tube designs, but a good analogy is, I have made about 200 flights on business, nothing memorable. But the last time I was on a plane, it was a joyride on a Stearman biplane with a 7-cylinder radial engine. Modern airliners are airborne cattle cars. The old biplanes were were for larger-than-life F. Scott Fitzgerald heroes. I have an album of this flight on the Ballzboard:
http://stormlarge.com/ballzboard/vie...hp?f=11&t=4221
No one could call a Stearman "better" than a modern aircraft, but guess what I would rather be in? There is a romance to the old tube designs, not to mention the inherent linearity of tubes, that has kept us collectors faithful to the old designs.