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Digital Source with Tube Amplification

For perspective, I will be turning 36 next week so I didn't grow up listening to vinyl and have never really experienced tube amplification. I am getting a Yaqin EL34 tube integrated in the next couple of weeks and my dad thought it would be fun to use his vintage turntable as a source for a true analog listening experience. Logistics will likely make this difficult as we live states apart.

This discussion made me wonder what other peoples experiences have been using different combinations of gear. On the analog end you have a turntable and tube amplifier and on the digital end you have a CD player and a solid state amplifier.

I am curious if the people that prefer the analog systems enjoy the sound of a turntable with a solid state amplifier or a CD player with a tube amplifier more. Is one combination more analog sounding than the other in your experience?

Obviously, every experience and system is different so I am just looking for general observations based of your experiences.
mceljo

Showing 1 response by iramirez

iramirez
68 posts
 
Ok, I'm going out on a limb here. I imagine that if I fall off I'll be on my own. So, in the most general sense, on average, hybrid-a will have the most analog sound. Sure, there are a million caveats to this. But I think that unless you are listening to the very best digital sources you will not get to a close enough facsimile of analog sound. I think that, on average, hybrid-a is your answer. Mind you, I very much prefer tube amplification to solid state and would dump my turntable in a second if I could afford an equally analog sounding DAC.

Cheers,

Ivan
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