It is not the point of warm or not warm sound, the point is to achieve harmonically correct and balanced sound. For $10k I would probably get Atma-Sphere preamp with phono and amp. Yes, all tubes. Unless you can jump to Nagra, FM Acoustics, Gryphon, Ypsilon hybrids etc. But even then very careful audition and match with speakers would be in order.
Switching to solid state amp?
I have had tube amps for the past 20+ years and have totally enjoyed their sound in my system. I am thinking of trying a solid state amp. Pass Labs comes to mind but would be open to anyone who made the switch, was happy and what brand worked for you. Btw I will still be using a tube preamp. Who has been happy with the switch?
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Stay with tubes. Here is a nice article on why many prefer the sound of tubes, including me! https://medium.com/collectors-weekly/could-an-old-school-tube-amp-make-the-music-you-love-sound-bett... |
Tubes tend to have a few disadvantages, apart from the inconvenience: 1 higher distortion, even though some like that. 2 load dependent frequency response. The best are borderline OK, but many have a terrible frequency response under realistic speaker loads. Just watch the graphs in Stereophile (and ignore the words). 3 low output power. Speakers need power, and lots of it, to move the mass of those cones. Without enough power, the sound will distort on louder signals, and be compressed. Again, some like this, but it is not a straight wire with gain. Personally I am convinced that solid state amplifiers are a mature technology that reached sonic perfection in the 1980's. Hence, under controled conditions no differences between them can be detected. That is good news, because manufacturing technology by mainstream brands has made such amplifiers eminently affordable. If you want to spend money on the amplifier with the best test results, look no further than the Benchmark AHB2. For some perverse pleasure in debunking audio myths: http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/amplificateurs-de-puissance-haute-fidelite/mesures-ampli-yamaha-p... Litterature: http://www.keith-snook.info/wireless-world-magazine/Wireless-World-1977/Audible%20amplifier%20distor... https://linearaudio.nl/sites/linearaudio.net/files/Valves%20versus%20Transistors%20DCD.pdf |
It's not really that people like distortion. They can't hear the distortion that tube amps might have in more abundance than solid state. We went through this debate forty years ago with vanishingly low THD solid state amps that sounded terribly compared to tube Amos with orders of magnitude higher THD. Obviously, as long as the THD is down around 0.05% it will not interfere with one's enjoyment of the tube amp's otherwise terrific sonic virtues. You know, like realism, air, harmonic integrity, bass performance, dynamics, presence, soundstage, |
It’s not really that folks prefer the distortion of tube amps as willemj suggests. It’s that the higher THD distortion of tube amps is not (rpt not) audible. But this is not (rpt not) big news. We found this out 40 years ago when the vanishingly low distortion (THD) solid state amps of the era sounded rather horrible compared to much higher THD tube amps. And while one might argue solid state amps have progressed greatly since then and even have certain advantages over tube amps, including maintenance and reliability, though I suspect even those advantages are a little overblown. I would opine tube amps can frequently be superior to solid state amps in terms of realism, dynamics, warmth, inner detail, high frequency response, smoothness, soundstaging, musicality, and - perhaps ironically - what I call "apparent lack of distortion." geoff kait machina dynamica |
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