Okay, curiosity got the better of me and I had to see what was going on in this thread. Albert, as you know, I do value your opinion and will no doubt be calling you at some point.
Many of us, certainly tube users, choose sound produced by circuits employing tubes because to us they are different if not preferable to the sound produced by all solid state circuits (with a few notable exceptions). We could call this particular class of sound the tube phenomena. We have come to this choice through observation and analysis. My hypothesis is that design engineers employ tubes because of their inherent sonic qualities and not because of electrical parameters that can otherwise be achieved by solid state devices which are cheaper and generally accepted to be more reliable. It would logically follow that these design engineers would want the full measure of benefits that can be derived from the device around which they are basing their design. Wouldnt you? I know I would. Now you may choose to agree or disagree with my hypothesis but without some conjecture there would be no basis for experimentation. Without experimentation opposing opinions are themselves mere conjecture. Every opposing opinion I have seen in this thread is logical and valid. Does anyone have evidence to support these views? If you do, I would like to investigate whether or not there are certain classes of circuit design (as i suspect there to be) that can be identified by a certain design approach and if common designs yield similar sonic results based on a control tube. If we can then name these circuits and identify them within our own equipment, perhaps through consultation with the engineer we would then have a testbed. The idea is to agree upon what we can prove and bring this noble quest closer to fruition for the greatest number of people. If it finally comes to having to share my findings only with other DK Design owners then so be it. Though opinions would seem to lead in that direction, hard indicators do not.
Many of us, certainly tube users, choose sound produced by circuits employing tubes because to us they are different if not preferable to the sound produced by all solid state circuits (with a few notable exceptions). We could call this particular class of sound the tube phenomena. We have come to this choice through observation and analysis. My hypothesis is that design engineers employ tubes because of their inherent sonic qualities and not because of electrical parameters that can otherwise be achieved by solid state devices which are cheaper and generally accepted to be more reliable. It would logically follow that these design engineers would want the full measure of benefits that can be derived from the device around which they are basing their design. Wouldnt you? I know I would. Now you may choose to agree or disagree with my hypothesis but without some conjecture there would be no basis for experimentation. Without experimentation opposing opinions are themselves mere conjecture. Every opposing opinion I have seen in this thread is logical and valid. Does anyone have evidence to support these views? If you do, I would like to investigate whether or not there are certain classes of circuit design (as i suspect there to be) that can be identified by a certain design approach and if common designs yield similar sonic results based on a control tube. If we can then name these circuits and identify them within our own equipment, perhaps through consultation with the engineer we would then have a testbed. The idea is to agree upon what we can prove and bring this noble quest closer to fruition for the greatest number of people. If it finally comes to having to share my findings only with other DK Design owners then so be it. Though opinions would seem to lead in that direction, hard indicators do not.