Solid State for Rock and Tubes for Jazz, Yes or No

'' which is better " , I think we all know the answer to that.

Yes, 'tight' bass will be 'better' with higher damping. The issue is, best I can make out, is that 'tight' bass does not exist in the real world. Its seems to be an artifact of stereos. If you have ever turned up the volume seeking more impact then you know exactly what I am talking about. Real bass has body, definition and impact, but I never hear it being 'tight'.

I play in a rock band, and have played in jazz bands, orchestras and folk bands (string bass). I've also made a good number of recordings. So this issue of bass has been something about which I've really wanted to get right over the years, simply because I know what its supposed to sound like. One of the take-aways has been if the equipment is really doing its job, it won't matter what kind of music is going through it.

Atmassphere,

Maybe some semantics at work. When I say "tight", I mean it has body, definition, impact and I like to say it is "articulate" as well.

I find I have to test bass using recordings of electronic music in addition to all the various acoustic types because I like it all. For me, I think electronic music ups the ante a bit for really good bass (call it what you like).

When its "tight" and all the rest, bass in electronic music sounds optimal to me as well as bass from acoustic instruments. It is also most dynamic and all the rest. Its very hard to get that way and still have acoustic bass sound real I think in that electronic music and acoustic music are different beasts with different attributes.

Electronic music is perhaps "less real" than acoustic, but real nonetheless.

All I know is it all sounds great and about as good as it gets in my house these days. After hashing through the technicalities, that in the end is all that really matters.

I'm with Atmasphere,

If you are too lazy to read any further my answer to the question is NO.

For those more patient audiophiles-

Body and texture are what you would hear from a real bass in a reasonable room. That over damped thing is unnatural. Not to say electronic music cannot have it though.

The beauty of a synthesiser is you can completely control it's envelope. (Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release or ADSR). So if you want notes to be tight fast and nimble you can tell the synth to do it. Even to impossibly short lengths. An acoustic bass has a whole set of other characteristics which do not contain that kind of repetitive tone across the frequency.

To my ears and after having high sensitvity horns and all sorts of low sensitivity speakers, that over damped and very deep bass seems artificial. It can be impressive but ultimately unsatisfying.

My little SET amp with very low damping factor creates chest vibrating and very real sounding bass. It is full texture and life without ever feeling the need for tighter or deeper. Even with snappy electro music. Solidstate and other high damping amps tend to create deep bass with little texture IME.

But it's all about your system. The interaction between amp and speaker, and what you like is the ultimate test. A good hifi should play all music.

The question is too simple and the answer is more complex.

Chad, I'll agree it is a very system dependent thing.

As I outlined above, I can clearly hear the difference as others have described between the more highly damped bass (and sound overall) and less damped bass by switching between my BC ref1000m and TAD Hibachi 125 amps.

Which do I prefer?

With my main large OHM F5 series 3 speakers, I might lean towards the less damped sound with most smaller ensemble jazz, maybe not big band and similar scale classical, but for psynth/electronic music, big band large scale symphonic works, and other larger scale types of music, the high damping brings out the best with the large OHMs overall I would say.

With my smaller OHMs, it might start to lean more towards less damping.

With my smaller monitors, Dynaudio Contour 1.3mkII and especially Triangle Titus, things start to favor the less damped sound. I would love to run my Triangles off a tube amp someday to test those waters!

OF course those are just my observation and findings with my gear, but it does support the premise that whats best is very system dependent.