Affordable US Made Tube Pre/Power or Integrated Options
A tube rectifier is smoother than diodes as there’s no diode switching occurringAric, please provide measurements that show SS diode noise in a tube amplifier output. Tube rectifiers have a sound that some enjoy. Others think it mushy. Diode switching noise is around 12MHz and tanked in the filter caps. Tube rectifiers have slower transient response and sag voltage when called upon for more current. Many power amps with tube rectifiers should have two. |
I’d avoid the Tubes4HiFi/VTA like CoViD-19. Tubes4HiFi/VTA products are poorly designed to be as cheap as possible. I bought a factory built pair of the M-125 monoblocks. Factory built, the absolute worst assembly of any tube amp owned in over 50 years. They come nowhere close meeting the claimed specs. see http://www.ielogical.com/Audio/VTA_M-125.php. IMO, the designs suffers from fatal flaws [e.g. un-compensated LM334 causes gain to vary slightly between channels over about 10 minutes after an inordinately long warm up] and poor gain structure choices. They are marginally stable. Most will not have issues, but some... see https://i.postimg.cc/gcKSXW7f/Num1-Unstable.png in https://dynacotubeaudio.forumotion.com/t4217p50-m-125-build#42336 for an example. They can be made to work properly for very little extra work. Smilin’ Big Bob called me an Audio Zealot, banned my DTAF account and deleted my posts. People from all over the world have contacted me with similar issues with both their amplifiers and lack of support from Messrs. Latino & Mottram. BTW, ignore all tube rolling advice. Just as amplifiers sound different in different systems, so to with tubes. Tubes vary greatly, not only from brand to brand, but from tube to tube and over time. |
Aric, I have no problem hearing the difference. I do agree that power supplies have a tremendous affect on the sound. I do have issues with ascribing sonics to the wrong attributes. Tell me, what is the phase response of the the neon tube? Some chip regulators have terrible phase response. Others are quite good. Some can be improved dramatically. All regulators interact with the powered circuit and program. Power supplies are however one of the most misunderstood and neglected areas, especially by tinkerers who lack the requisite tools to properly analyze dynamic performance. |
