Soundstage, Imaging, Detail & Presence??

Charles1dad,
I remember my first 'tube' experience.
I had opened a high end audio store in Louisville, KY.
Bill Conrad kept calling, trying to get me to sell cj products. He's such a sweet guy, how could anyone object to doing business with him?
Anyway, when I got a PV-5 in, 'circa 1983'...I noticed the extreme heat and smell of the tubes...then I was thunderstruck by the 'space', 'space within space' and the overall presentation being on a whole different planet in terms of low level resolution...that, and the overall 'smoothness'...I was hooked...still am.

As I tell fledgling audiophiles, 'Tubes is great'! lol.

Larry

Lrsky, Amen brother.

Lrsky nailed it.

The first time I heard tubed cj products was the very late 70's at a great dealer in upstate NY.

Totally convinced me that tubes are IT.

03-22-11: Lrsky
"Presence=Think halographic...'Help me Obi Wan you're my only hope'..a female vocalist is standing before you in a time and place in space."

I always think of the Star Trek transporter - Like this thing just appears before you, it doesn't play AT you. But the Obi Wan thing works, too. This is what I get from my SET that I was not able to get from other types of systems. (Not saying you can't, just saying I couldn't)

I suspect the speakers and acoustic environment of the room have far more to do with presence than tubes v. solid state. I've often wondered how fundamentalism survives scientific explanation, but the controversy over analog v. digital whether it be tubes v solid state or vinyl v. disc suggests that a need for mysticism may be part of the human experience.

db