There is more to it than just tube noise.
A tube phono section can be built to operate with zero negative feedback and passive equalization. There is an advantage to this- less audible ticks and pops from the LP surface.
This is not because of less bandwidth (we spec our phono section to 100KHz for example). It is because there is a slight but measurable delay between the input and output of any phono circuit. This delay is called Propagation Delay and is something that occurs in all circuits.
What this means is if you use loop feedback (which is common in less expensive phono sections) to do the equalization, the result is that the feedback will be trailing slightly behind the actual signal. In a sense, it is as if you are injecting a slight echo a few milliseconds behind the original signal.
At low frequencies this is not much of a problem but it is audible at higher frequencies as it essentially introduces distortion, and short duration events (like ticks and pops) are slightly increased as they 'ring' in the circuit along with all the other high frequencies. This makes them more audible than the actual signal. I have heard this have a profound effect on the perception of the condition of the LP surface; the same LP playing with lots of surface noise with one preamp and not with another.
It is harder to build a solid state phono section that is zero feedback. Its fairly easy with tubes, and so there is an argument that while tubes are a bit noisier than transistors, they have the possibility of presenting less ticks and pops! Personally I go with the latter, and do as much as possible to keep the noise down (which usually means hand-picking the tubes).
You can of course install a stepup transformer to help with the noise, but IME any transformer also has the effect of reducing the musical involvement because of artifacts inherent in the transformer.
A tube phono section can be built to operate with zero negative feedback and passive equalization. There is an advantage to this- less audible ticks and pops from the LP surface.
This is not because of less bandwidth (we spec our phono section to 100KHz for example). It is because there is a slight but measurable delay between the input and output of any phono circuit. This delay is called Propagation Delay and is something that occurs in all circuits.
What this means is if you use loop feedback (which is common in less expensive phono sections) to do the equalization, the result is that the feedback will be trailing slightly behind the actual signal. In a sense, it is as if you are injecting a slight echo a few milliseconds behind the original signal.
At low frequencies this is not much of a problem but it is audible at higher frequencies as it essentially introduces distortion, and short duration events (like ticks and pops) are slightly increased as they 'ring' in the circuit along with all the other high frequencies. This makes them more audible than the actual signal. I have heard this have a profound effect on the perception of the condition of the LP surface; the same LP playing with lots of surface noise with one preamp and not with another.
It is harder to build a solid state phono section that is zero feedback. Its fairly easy with tubes, and so there is an argument that while tubes are a bit noisier than transistors, they have the possibility of presenting less ticks and pops! Personally I go with the latter, and do as much as possible to keep the noise down (which usually means hand-picking the tubes).
You can of course install a stepup transformer to help with the noise, but IME any transformer also has the effect of reducing the musical involvement because of artifacts inherent in the transformer.