Art Dudley/Stereophile, Nov-07, page 41/on a speaker system from Aurum Acoustics:

"Bear in mind that even the hard-core single-ended-triode movement wasn't conceived as just a new branch of high-end audio: It was intended as a whole new tree, by hobbyists who considered the old tree to be very, very sick. To the SET pioneers, audio had gone from being an interesting way of enjoying recorded music to a turgid and fetishistic exercise in irrelevance in which wealthy men with too much time on their hands try to outdo each other in identifying arcane sound effects in a handful of guru-approved recordings.
Also remember that the high-end audio establishment didn't take long to dismiss the SET guys as a bunch of self-conscious hipsters less concerned with fidelity than with the coolness factor: gracelessly aging punk wannabes whose willingness to live with grossly colored , narrow range sound reproduction is rivalled only by their disdain for any model of amplifier or speaker that might be owned by more than two other people.
The fact is, there's an archetypal high-end audio sound and an archetypal SET sound. At its best, high-end audio sound is impressive open and clear, with deep bass, shimmering highs, and a flair for thrilling spatial effects: At it's worst, it's lifeless , boring, constricted, undramatic, uninvolving, and incapable of any suggestion of flow in the music.
At its best, SET sound has the kind of punch and drama that can startle you out of your pants - plus real musical drive, momemtum, presence, and tone; at its worst, it has no bass, no treble, and a level of coloration and sheer fuzz that could drive you out of your house after a few songs".