differences between tube and solid state designs

"SS - Flat"

Couldn't have said it better myself. I've always found SS amps to sound flat.

Sorry, couldn't resist. :-)

Shadrone,

I must disagree with you on one point...Your posts suggest that tubophiles are looking for some kind of flat frequency response and must resort to endlessly changing cables 'til we achieve that goal.

I would suggest that flat frequency response is not the ultimate objective, if an objective at all, of most tubophiles. If we dislike like the tonal response of our tube stuff we just change a few tubes at minimal expense. Personally I don't care if its flat so long as it sounds 'natural'.

But you SS guys, what are you to do if for some reason you don't like the tone of your undistorted, flat frequency response SS stuff (I'm assuming that all SS stuff doesn't sound the same - but I don't know why it wouldn't)? Buy tone bending cable? Buy an equalizer? Buy a new component altogether? Buy new speakers? Sounds rather expensive to me and difficult to achieve without investing considerable money?

Anyway, I'm having a slow day and just thought I'd add my 2 cents worth. :-)

Audiofeil, You could be right. I gave up on SS years ago - I was running one of Threshold's SA amps and some ARC D115II's. Tonally they wre similar and fairly plesant however give the ARC a 30 minute warm up and the famous 'tube liquidity' kicked in. So much for the Threshold. I've only owned a few decent SS amps since and haven't found any reason to keep them except as a 'summer' amps when, as today, the temp is over 110 degrees! When someone can point the way for me to a SS amp that has that mid-range liquidity and high frequency air that I find in my tube amps I'll sure give them a try.

As an aside, I note that most SS adherents seem to have not been tube owners first, but that most tube owners were previously SS owners. Also, I've not noted a lot of SS advocates reporting that they were previously tube users who grew unsatisfied with the sound. Are these observations just the result of my own prejudices (I only retain what reinforces my opinion) or do they have some foundation?

Shadrone,

1st I want to make it perfectly clear that I take NO position on what others like or use for their entertainment. I'm just having some fun, and in that vein....

Perhaps us tubophiles find SS stuff boring if for no other reason that we can't tinker with it much. With tubes we get to tinker with everything! Getting bored with the sound buy some new drivers, exhaust that possibility - get some new power tubes, exhaust that possibility vary the bias on the power tubes, exhaust that possibilty change out caps, exhaust that possibility - oh well you get the idea! Now add to that the mid-range liquidity and upper frequency air, 3 dimensionality if you please, that I can't seem to find in SS, how can you go wrong. Hell I've even got some amps with a two ohm tap just in case I get some speakers that are hard to drive, bass and impedence wise. All I give up is a bit of slam in the bass, just a bit mind you.

All that said, on balance, I tend to agree with you.

One of the wonderful things about SS, assuming you have reached your sonic goals, is you don't have much angst about tube wear, finding suitble replacements for failures, tube amp damage caused by major shorts in power tubes, ad infinitum! Worryworts need not apply! Just those exact concerns kept me away from tubes for a long time!

In fact there are some occasions when I wish there weren't so many varibles with tubes, especially amps, which also require special attention to proper speaker matching in the first place, as mentioned above by Jayarr. Very important issue!

This is a fun hobby...........:-)