What is surprising is that while we have the Smythe Realizer we don’t have stuff that works that way for audiophile hobbyists. I feel like a good VST plugin for audiophiles would be enjoyed by subjectivist audiophiles.
I think audiophools are in the firm belief that any 'digital' or 'emulation' in the signal path would remove 'the magic' and would not use it. Main reasoning would be: those engineers have cloth ears and have no idea about true high-end audio.
I firmly believe that the eyes and wallet size are even bigger contributors to hearing 'true audiophile sound' than looking at specs and a limited set of measurements.
In audiophool land superlatives and 'sonic descriptions' describing wonders is all people want.
Both JA's can cater for all sides of the 'audiophile' range. Those that like to see expensive stuff measured and evaluated with 'technical ears' and those that want to read about the 'magic' they long to hear themselves.
Smart move to cater for both sides (a bit like Schiit does in the lower budget gear) when the goal is fame (name) and fortune (income) and be able to play with gear most people can just dream about.
This really is not about tubes and whether or not they 'remove' or 'add' anything or 'modify' the sound in some way... it is about 'the dream' vs 'hard facts' and wanting to cater for both.
Me... I just laugh about the 'magic' and simply have a look at some of the (limited) measurements occasionally if I am looking to know something about a specific piece of gear and a search engine stumbles on one of the entered key-words.
That saves me a lot of anger and keyboard warrior type of arguments with folks I don't know and are not willing to see 'life' in the same way as I do. Live and let live.
It is sometimes fun to discuss these things though. It won't change the world nor any aficionado as minds are already made up.