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Is tube sound vs solid state easier to distinguish using headphones?

Well designed tube amplifiers and solid state amplifiers in general sound remarkably similar with a wide range of music. The slight holographic and imaging properties that tubes can allegedly portray over certain solid state designs is what brings people to the “tube sound” camp. My question for the audiophiles here is whether it’s even detectable in most speaker setups or does a high quality pair of headphones showcase the tube sound qualities more accurately due to their near-field nature?

tubelvr11

Showing 1 response by pkatsuleas

pkatsuleas
248 posts
 

@tubelvr11 

Not sure about headphones because I've never had the occasion to listen to my cans with tube gear. But I can instantly tell the difference between my SS and tube amps. Even with my very modest set up. In fact, I was just about to start a thread with the title of "Aaaahhhh".

I love my Hegel H360 integrated but just put my Rogue tube amp and tube pre combo back in the mix and everything just sounds more right to me.

Not sure if this answers your question but there it is.

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