Yes I do remember the Bob Carver amp challenge & I think it's worth
revisiting.
Tube/solid state amps do sound different from each other because they distort the signal in different ways. One of the biggest differences important to me is damping factor. Which a bit over simplified is the ratio of amp output impedance to speaker and connecting wire impedance. I do not have ultra-high end power amps just good 'old Adcom 555's. 250 watts continuous power & damping ratio of 800. This is significant because my front ch Infinity Kappa 8's drop to below 1 ohm at certian bass frquences. It would really suck the life out of a tube amp. Tube power amps typically have only 10>20 damping ratio because of the output transformer. That poor rating is why you rarely see it in tube amp specs.
So if one likes the sound of a tube amp I think it's very important to have a good amp with decent out put, & a high efficiency speaker with an easy to drive load.