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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 5 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,686 posts
 
Any combo can be really good or less so. The devil is all in the details. Getting a good match first between amp and speakers matters most perhaps. Then there is the quality of the source. There is usually a lot more involved to get a turntable set up right and sounding its best than there is with a CD player. So generalizations are tough. IT can all be really good or less so. It all depends. On much more than merely if CD or record, tube or SS. Those are just two common topics that get a lot of buzz these days among "audiophiles" and that generate relatively strong opinions either way. But you know how far an opinion will get you, right?
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,686 posts
 
Digital has come a long way in last 15 years or so and good digital these days can be hard to distinguish from analog. The best of each tend to sound similar to me. If I had to choose, in theory, I would prefer the best possible analog source to the best current digital source available. That source would be a large format RTR tape, not phono. In most cases, with most recordings, what sounds best will vary case to case. But digital is probably still not able to match the best analog POSSIBLE with technology to date. BUt in most cases, practically, it is so close that it really does not matter in practice for most.

In general tube amps may sound similar to SS amps but some tube amp sound might be quite distinctive and hard to replicate with SS. Its a different flavor of sound, not necessarily "better" though in this case.

SS versus tube amplification is an even tighter race to call. The best I have heard of both tend to sound similar.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,686 posts
 
Well, that makes it a little easier...

Someone who likes old style "analog" sound will probably enjoy older analog recordings remastered well to CD (there are many such recordings to choose from these days) and played through a tube amp of choice best. So my answer is c).

An extreme example, but I have some old 78s that I have recorded to CD and .wav digital formats that display the unique and most distinct analog charms of these recordings in a manner that could probably only be surpassed by playing the 78s on a nicely restored Victrola. That's on my list of audio toys to acquire someday. I have tubes in my pre-amp only. And no horns in my speakers. It might not be easy in general for someone to know I am using a tube pre-amp just by listening...though the detail and articulation with just the slightest touch of warmth perhaps in the midrange might be a hint.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,686 posts
 
This is like the scientist teasing the mice......
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,686 posts
 
When I record vinyl to CD or digital CD res .wav file, I am generally not able to tell that CD or digital file is now the source.

I'm not saying my vinyl playback rig is the best out there, but it is pretty good, better than most, and sounds wonderful to me, so I am confident in saying it ain't no slouch either. And I think my digital is pretty well up there as well.
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