Can tube amps give true high end bass?


I got the giant Silverline Grande La Folia speakers. They are really good and true high end in my opinion. They are efficient ca 93Db but got for bass 4 x 9,5´ dynaudio woofers in each cabinet. I have tried 2 tube amps with them: Antique Sound Labs monos 2x60w and a protype VERY good 2x40W with El34 tubes (more about that amp in a later tread). And I have tried 2 transistor amps: An Ayre V1xe and Krell 450mcx monos. All givin very good sound in the mids and heigths BUT very different in bass. In my opinion the best bass was from the tube amps. Powerful deep bass!!

My dealer clames that such big speakers need a lot of power to control the 8 woofers: You must have several 100W i.e. tranistor or BIG tube amps like big VTL. With the "small" tube amps, that you have tried, the woofers get out of control and "pumping" air in an incorrect way. This movement in the woofers gives sound on it own that you only THINK is good bass!

Beeing an audiophile for 30 years I think I can determine when I hear good bass. But I am puzzled! -How can a 40W tube amp give better bass that Krell 450 monos?
ulf

Showing 3 responses by pauly

Audiobb, I am surprised the 300B sounded better than the Cambridge consider the fact that you were using B&W 602. Had you been using appropriate speakers, you may find your 300B capable of the same (or better) bass than the Cambridge.

+++ But these 300B monos could be improved with better output transformer +++

Possibly, but it's bad would most certainly be improved by speaker presenting a more benign load. As an analogy, think of using a 300B of B&W equivalent to diving a Ferrari on the beach ... not very smart.

Regards
Paul
Jmaldonado, can you please explain why you feel a tube amplifier needs at least 40wpc to good bass?

I know that statement is patently false as I have seen published numbers of a Decware 2wpc amp going down to about 10Hz at –3db, but I would like to hear your spin on how you correlate frequency response to output power.

Regards
Paul