The more things change, the more they stay the same. What I am seeing here is simply a re-hashing of the old "measurements" argument that was totally de-bunked, and trashed over 20 years ago. The measurements do not reflect the sound of the equipment when it is used in real world applications. Yet people still cling to this dead horse. And it gives rise to these incorrect statements about tube colorations and distortion, in comparison to SS amps' colorations and distortions which are usually designed from the ground up to have great measured specs, but can't cut it as well in the listening room. Look, a cheap Yamaha reciever will measure out better than a Ongaku amp in the lab. Is there anyone who thinks that the Yamaha will sound better or be more truly accurate at reproducing music than the Ongaku? Puhleeeese. If measurements are your thing, then go out and buy a set of test instruments and hook your SS amp up to them and watch the meters move. If sound is your thing, then buy a good tube amp and hook it up to your speakers and enjoy music. If you think for one minute that those specification measurements are going to tell you anything about the real world capability of that amp, then you are sadly mistaken. Specs are a marketing scam, and that is all they are. I am very surprised that people on this board are still under the same misconceptions that were thrown out the window 20 years ago. The only spec I need to know is if the unit will turn on. The rest is done with the ears. By the way, the THD of this post was <.00000001%. Wanna buy it?
Tubes Do It -- Transistors Don't.
I never thought transistor amps could hold a candle to tube amps. They just never seem to get the "wholeness of the sound of an instrument" quite right. SS doesn't allow an instrument (brass, especially) to "bloom" out in the air, forming a real body of an instrument. Rather, it sounds like a facsimile; a somewhat truncated, stripped version of the real thing. Kind of like taking 3D down to 2-1/2D.
I also hear differences in the actual space the instruments are playing in. With tubes, the space appears continuous, with each instrument occupying a believable part in that space. With SS, the space seems segmented, darker, and less continuous, with instruments somewhat disconnected from each other, almost as if they were panned in with a mixer. I won't claim this to be an accurate description, but I find it hard to describe these phenomena.
There is also the issue of interest -- SS doesn't excite me or maintain my interest. It sounds boring. Something is missing.
Yet, a tube friend of mine recently heard a Pass X-350 amp and thought it sounded great, and better in many ways than his Mac MC-2000 on his Nautilus 800 Signatures. I was shocked to hear this from him. I wasn't present for this comparison, and the Pass is now back at the dealer.
Tubes vs. SS is an endless debate, as has been seen in these forums. I haven't had any of the top solid state choices in my system, so I can't say how they fare compared to tubes. The best SS amp I had was a McCormack DNA-1 Rev. A, but it still didn't sound like my tube amps, VT-100 Mk II & Cary V-12.
Have any of you have tried SS amps that provided these qualities I describe in tubes? Or, did you also find that you couldn't get these qualities from a SS amp?
I also hear differences in the actual space the instruments are playing in. With tubes, the space appears continuous, with each instrument occupying a believable part in that space. With SS, the space seems segmented, darker, and less continuous, with instruments somewhat disconnected from each other, almost as if they were panned in with a mixer. I won't claim this to be an accurate description, but I find it hard to describe these phenomena.
There is also the issue of interest -- SS doesn't excite me or maintain my interest. It sounds boring. Something is missing.
Yet, a tube friend of mine recently heard a Pass X-350 amp and thought it sounded great, and better in many ways than his Mac MC-2000 on his Nautilus 800 Signatures. I was shocked to hear this from him. I wasn't present for this comparison, and the Pass is now back at the dealer.
Tubes vs. SS is an endless debate, as has been seen in these forums. I haven't had any of the top solid state choices in my system, so I can't say how they fare compared to tubes. The best SS amp I had was a McCormack DNA-1 Rev. A, but it still didn't sound like my tube amps, VT-100 Mk II & Cary V-12.
Have any of you have tried SS amps that provided these qualities I describe in tubes? Or, did you also find that you couldn't get these qualities from a SS amp?
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- 126 posts total
- 126 posts total