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BadNick · 10-12-2004, 08:54 AM

Take your pick. Then you can make it sound to your liking either way. There is no one right answer, that's an elusive fantasy.

IMO, the balance between all your components and how they interact is more significant than tube vs solid state; I'm talkiing about the whole chain from first input to speaker output. Some of what you said about tube vs SS sound are stereotypes and maybe applies to some older tube equipment. No matter what sound you prefer, I'd bet I could put together a tube driven setup and a SS setup that you would like. But I think a good solid state setup is probably gonna cost less and be more practical for most. I'm not a fan of what I'd call the "old traditional" tube sound even though it has it's positive points too; and even there, old triode tubes sound different than pentodes etc.

I've had all sorts of SS and tube stuff throughout my component chain. For about the last 15yrs or so, I'm using and happy with a tube preamp (custom modified Audio Research SP6B) with a SS amp (modified Threshhold S300-II) but I find that cartridge changes and how I amplify the cartridge (moving coil with or without various step up devices vs moving magnet) and the character of the speakers make more significant differences than the type of amplifiers. How CD's sound is different too but I think less complicated since there are less pieces in the chain.

About less sythetic sounding guitars, it's funny when I was selliing my old solid state Crown D150 amp many years ago, I had a line of guitar players outside my house bidding the thing up above what I was even asking for it. Those guitar players said they really liked how the D150 made their guitars sound; this was both electric and amplified acoutic guitars ...I don't know what to think of that since I'm not a musician.

One thing about amplifier distortion that I have floating around in my head for better or worse is that ...this is an opinion not necessarily absolute fact... tube amps generate more significant odd order harmonics (like 3rd order) vs SS amps are making more even order harmonics (like 2nd order). Human hearing seems to prefer the odds vs the evens. But like I said above, other factors wash out these differences in 99.9999% of systems.

Here's a reason to go tubes: years ago a comforting experience with a Beard P100 tube amp I had for a while was the amount of heat it gave off = I literally had to turn the heat off in that room! Those big old KT88 tubes could almost heat my entire house and the aura and glow of the tubes was magical. But that doesn't make it better or worse than solid state.

10-12-2004, 08:54 AM	#4 (permalink)
BadNick Riding the Ocean Spray Location: S.E. PA in U Sofa	Take your pick. Then you can make it sound to your liking either way. There is no one right answer, that's an elusive fantasy. IMO, the balance between all your components and how they interact is more significant than tube vs solid state; I'm talkiing about the whole chain from first input to speaker output. Some of what you said about tube vs SS sound are stereotypes and maybe applies to some older tube equipment. No matter what sound you prefer, I'd bet I could put together a tube driven setup and a SS setup that you would like. But I think a good solid state setup is probably gonna cost less and be more practical for most. I'm not a fan of what I'd call the "old traditional" tube sound even though it has it's positive points too; and even there, old triode tubes sound different than pentodes etc. I've had all sorts of SS and tube stuff throughout my component chain. For about the last 15yrs or so, I'm using and happy with a tube preamp (custom modified Audio Research SP6B) with a SS amp (modified Threshhold S300-II) but I find that cartridge changes and how I amplify the cartridge (moving coil with or without various step up devices vs moving magnet) and the character of the speakers make more significant differences than the type of amplifiers. How CD's sound is different too but I think less complicated since there are less pieces in the chain. About less sythetic sounding guitars, it's funny when I was selliing my old solid state Crown D150 amp many years ago, I had a line of guitar players outside my house bidding the thing up above what I was even asking for it. Those guitar players said they really liked how the D150 made their guitars sound; this was both electric and amplified acoutic guitars ...I don't know what to think of that since I'm not a musician. One thing about amplifier distortion that I have floating around in my head for better or worse is that ...this is an opinion not necessarily absolute fact... tube amps generate more significant odd order harmonics (like 3rd order) vs SS amps are making more even order harmonics (like 2nd order). Human hearing seems to prefer the odds vs the evens. But like I said above, other factors wash out these differences in 99.9999% of systems. Here's a reason to go tubes: years ago a comforting experience with a Beard P100 tube amp I had for a while was the amount of heat it gave off = I literally had to turn the heat off in that room! Those big old KT88 tubes could almost heat my entire house and the aura and glow of the tubes was magical. But that doesn't make it better or worse than solid state.