Beginner looking for guidance into tube sound.

Atmasphere

I have recordings with bass drums that don’t just shake walls, but knock things off the bookshelves.

This sadly is not one of them.

I don't thing any recording of Canto would. The score does not have any section where the bass drum is a triple forte (when I made that recording the assistant conductor was sitting right beside me so I got a briefing on the entire thing). The drum is used in quieter passages- that is when you know if your system is capable of the nuance of being able to play really deep bass at low levels and get it right. 

but my copy of Canto General sounds weak on the bottom

Heck, that recording can shake walls! The bass drum used was the largest in the state.

You make wonderful amps but clearly this person is starting out and can’t afford them, not my Julius Futterman OTL3s.

I began by building my own Dyna 70 when I was 14 years old and it kept me quite happy from 1968 through 1980, when I moved up to the Dyna MK3s. Those were not particularly stable, I got the Futtermans in 1985, they were modified from pentode to triode in 2015 and I am still using them.


Question: do you consider the NYAL Futterman OTL3 “classic” even if it’s been completely rebuilt with Jensen audio grade foil caps?

@unreceivedogma I'm a fan of the ST-70 and have rebuilt many of them. I was only offering the advice since the ST70 is a good entry point into high end audio if its refurbished.


I regard the Futterman amps as classics but not the NYAL stuff.

Any vintage equipment like the Dyna stuff should have their power supplies rebuilt. The original filter caps in most of the tube stuff is all bad now- and if you run equipment like that without servicing it out you run the risk of destroying the power transformer.

A lot of that 'classic' sound is actually bad filter caps and other aging parts.

Tube sound is a myth save your money for better speakers.

https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/if-tube-sound-is-a-myth-why-tubes.8656/

Tube sound is not a myth. However, it is about the distortion that is made, vs the distortion made by traditional solid state. In both cases you are up against a design issue- being able to apply enough feedback. If you could do this there would be no difference between solid state and tubes.

The advantage tubes have is that they make enough of the lower ordered harmonics to allow the ear's masking principle to prevent the higher ordered harmonics from being audible. This causes them to be noticeably smoother than traditional solid state and quite literally is why tubes are still around decades on after being declared 'obsolete' in the 1960s. Back then though, solid state amps were abominations for the most part- the declaration was premature.


If you can apply enough feedback you can get solid state to be as smooth as tubes, if you also pay attention to the distortion signature (keeping the lower orders as the predominant distortion product). The funny thing is that if you pay attention to the distortion signature, the difference between an amp with 1% THD at full power and one with 0.05% will be very hard to hear in a side by side comparison.

@johnfritter  If you get a tube amp use the 4 ohm taps for you connection to the speakers. Your speakers are not particularly tube-friendly due to the low impedances in the bass region (3.1 ohms). If you like what you hear, consider a speaker that is higher impedance and otherwise easier to drive- that is where tubes can really show off what they do.