More Tubes = Better Sound


I am wondering if anyone has thoughts on the sound quality of using more tubes to get the same power as an amp that uses less tubes? I had a pair of VTL MB 750 and they had 12 tubes for the output. I am looking at an ARC ref 600, however, it is 250 watts less and uses almost 3 times as many tubes as the VTL MB 750's. does anyone know the logic here? I am thinking of passing up on the 609's due to the expense if the tubes, but is there an advantage to using so many tubes?
richdeben

Showing 2 responses by atmasphere

If you are going to have multiple power tubes, it is best to have a lot, assuming there is a mechanism to allow for current sharing among them.

The bigger problem in dealing with high powered tube amps is actually the output transformer, but that is a story for another thread.
what are the advantages to having a lot of tubes, assuming that you have very efficient and sensitive speakers (the OP has some very efficient Klipsch speakers)?

There is less advantage in this situation. What such speakers do allow is that you can have a situation where clipping the amp becomes impossible (we have lots of horn customers...). That in itself is valuable but not germane to the thread.

IIRC, Atmashpere's comment has to do with better impedance "matching" between his OTL amps and speakers.

This is incorrect; what I said was if one is to have multiple output tubes it is better to have a lot than a few. IOW in a larger transformer-coupled amp this holds true just as it does in our OTLs. This, as I mentioned previously, holds true as long as there is a means to allow for current sharing between the output devices.