Can you have too many tubes?

My stereo requires 110 tubes and when my new open reel tape machine arrives, it will be 124 tubes :^).

As Rushton says, it's balance and musicality that matter. Don't worry about how many tubes, just how it sounds.

....that must be audio heaven on earth! I heard those Dalis at the CES...I would put them in the coveted "state of the art" category...with tubes. I was mesmerized. Heard them the next year, with SS...ugh! I couldn't believe that it was the same speaker.

BTW, could you please list the number of tubes per piece of gear? Just curious....thanks!

Aestheitx Io (main) (6) 12AX7, (2) 6922, (2) 5692 =10 tubes
Aesthetix Callisto (4) 6922, (2) 5692 = 6 tubes
Dual power supplies for each, (6) 12AX7, (2) EL34 (each) =32 tubes

Custom crossover for Dali (4) 12SX7, (2) 12J5, (2) 6HM6= 8 tubes
Outboard power supply for Dali crossover (1) 6X5 = 1 tubes

Air Tight (6) EL34, (1) 12AX7, (1) 12AU7 (X 2 mono's) = 16 tubes
VTL 750 (12) 6550, (1) 12AT7, (2) 6350 (X 2 mono's) = 30 tubes

Scott Nixon DAC (1) 6922 = 1 tube

Ampex 351 (14) =14 tubes

Only 118 tubes Fatparrot......Squawk !

Ellery911, now your compliments are embarrassing me :^).

I use all those tubes because the designer of each of those pieces of gear thought that was the quantity needed. I do have a lot of spare tubes in my inventory, maybe two hundred ?

Some are really great like Amperex 7308 CEP, which I never seem to get around to using because I love Telefunkens so much. I just purchased 18 Mullard XF2 EL34 from a contact and working on 15 more from a contact in West Germany.

I'm as hopelessly in love with tubes as I am with software. My listening room is full of LP's and my photo studio has boxes and boxes of tubes.

It is fun trying to explain to art directors and clients what "tubes" are.

"Do they still make those ???" is the usual question.

At that point I'm afraid to mention I still listen to LP's :^).

You're going after 33 Mullard EL-34's?!!! Did I mention that I am your long lost brother, cousin, nephew, uncle [pick one]?

Truth is, I am still planning a test with 2 pair of Air Tight ATM-3 mono's (instead of 1 pair of ATM-3's plus 1 pair of VTL 750's).

The pair I have now are tubed up with Tele drivers and Mullard XF2's EL34's. Another pair of Air Tights will REQUIRE 12 more Mullards minimum, assuming no careful matching or spares.

Add the fact that each of my four Aesthetix outboard power supplies require two more Mullards each (8 total) and you can see why 33 tubes are not too many.

Actually like AR_t says......it should add up to more than 200.

At least in my dreams :^).

Sirspeedy, and I respectfully disagree with you.

Whatever amount of tubes needed to do the job is how many is required. I do have solid state TV and surround amps, but there is not another piece that I can displace a tube with a solid state device.

Now admittedly, when my system begins to look like this:

Super Bad !tube system

Only THEN be time to consider changing things :^).

Sirspeedy, I have great respect for Classe, Jeff Rowland, Gryphon and several other high end transistor amps.

Had I chosen Maggie 20.1 instead of the Dali Megaline, I might be running Classe Omega mono blocks instead of my current VTL 750's. In fact, I had several long discussions with the Classe factory as the Omega' were leading the pack as my choices as power for the 20.1.

I use what works. I always prefer tubes when possible, but there can be situations where transistors are a necessity (like inside that space ship:^).