Analog recordings are almost non existent nowadays. I have heard great DDD recordings and analog...so much goes into the final mix. Why argue anyway? We have both available for our needs! Enjoy what moves you.
That is what I, kind of, thought, too. The point between tubes and SS ends up being no point at all, if we are trying to reproduce the actual live event. Too many other variables get involved. To start, unless it is classical music, even "acoustic" one does get through some mode of electronic processing almost all the time. Not while playing guitar at home, but any venue bigger than a living room or so. Chasing some sound with tubes or transistors does not do much for actual reproduction. And that is for live performances which are maybe a smaller percentage of music sold. Who on Earth knows how something was supposed to sound in that studio half the world away? Good news is that these days it is getting to electronic sounds anyway so we do not even need to talk about "more natural".
My previous post was because I happen to have been at that particular Leonard Cohen concert and that song was the highlight of the evening. I remember it really vividly as does probably everyone who was there. There is no way that any equipment at home would reproduce it. Tubes or SS. First someone has to built a sports arena and then damp it with a few thousand people and their winter coats. Traps, corner contraptions, and first reflection things just would not cut it. Until that happens, it is all just babbling, I think. Otherwise, I think SS is much more convenient as it does not require changes. Just like automatic transmission is. I am not sure about cables etc.
In addition, I have found that SS amplification requires more attention to power supply/AC quality. Cable design is also more imperative toward maximizing sound quality with SS components. Either technology can deliver pleasing results. One thing that has always seemed to consistently sound better to my ears, was the use of Class A or high bias A/B high current designs. Large power supplies also seem to offer better dynamics.
Computers and digiheads are overtaking everything. Half the jobs are associated with taking care of computers. But there are islands of resistance. You are not audiophile if you listen in digital what was recorded in analog. Tubes/transistors is a complicated subject.
Live acoustic music is not tubelike or SS. It is somewhere between the two in many ways. It is not exceptionally rounded or flat, overly warm or cold or particularly rolled off nor piercing. It is clear, undistorted, unconfined and full of dynamic shadings. It is unique unto itself. There is certainly no imaging per se either. SS and tubes can convey certain aspects of a live performance but can not fully reproduce it. Large events use SS amplification, but no matter what amplification would be used, the venue itself has a larger sonic imprint. That’s why there are great sounding Symphony Halls and terrible sounding ones. Seats within venues alter your perception of fidelity. For home, many variables must be in harmony to achieve a reasonable level of fidelity to the source. Far more than just Tubes or SS in the signal path. Of course, you also need to be able to hear pitch and tone with reasonable acuity.
I am sitting and listening to a live CD (Leonard Cohen, Can’t Forget: A Souvenir Of A Grand Tour. track 4 La Manic) wondering about this tube/transistor debate. What do sound systems at relatively large concerts use? Is it tubes? Is it solid state? If I wanted to reproduce what I heard at the concert, would it make more sense to use something more similar to what I listened to during the live performance?
For this particular concert, I highly doubt any kind of home equipment would put you back there. CD is good, but the sound is not right.
This seems apropos, you know, from the point of view of the solid state believers.
“The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the original false conception come true. This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.
In other words, a positive or negative prophecy, strongly held belief, or delusion—declared as truth when it is actually false—may sufficiently influence people so that their reactions ultimately fulfill the once-false prophecy.
Self-fulfilling prophecy are effects in behavioral confirmation effect, in which behavior, influenced by expectations, causes those expectations to come true. It is complementary to the self-defeating prophecy.”
I almost agree with Elizabeth. It is nostalgia. But it’s nostalgia for listening to what voices and musical instruments really sound like. You know, instead of thin, two dimensional, airless, synthetic, bland, metallic, generic, irritating and hard like you get with solid state. It’s like organic food vs non organic food.
It is puzzling that all that you wrote somehow escapes the reality check among enthusiasts. Again, long live tubes, but on any scale they are virtually non-existent. As a poster, I forgot who it was, noted earlier...it is just plain economy.
Tubes are a niche product with some value for those who like them to the level of idolizing, but so is my manual transmission.
@mckinneymike—I'm curious, who/what/where are these new vacuum tube production facilities? The Noritaki "nutube" thing is just a restricted special purpose curiosity product of virtually no use in hi-end audio, the RCH Labs startup recently died in a bankruptcy auction, and the Western Electric reissue trial is a small, limited, insider-use effort.
The existing public vacuum tube suppliers are all marginal, unmonitored profiteers located in China, Russia, and other obscure ex-Soviet block satellites, and wholly dependent on the guitar amplifier and "tube audiophile" market. There's no other receiving-type vacuum tube usage anywhere in the world, for any purpose.
Where are those "new and modernizing tube manufacturing facilities" that you cite?
Nothing to do with timing.... back when I was playing in a band - when tubes and transistors were in its transitional stage... we simply knew that tubes simply sounded better for music.
Actually, to be completely up front about it, I do not ridicule Asperger’s or anyone who might have it. I might even exhibit a few symptoms myself from time to time. Asperger’s symptoms appear to your humble narrator to be a lot like symptoms of our old friend, audio nervosa. Look inside. 👀
Famous Autistic People Dan Aykroyd Hans Christian Andersen Benjamin Banneker – African American almanac author, surveyor, naturalist, and farmer Jodie Foster Robin Williams Tim Burton Bobby Fisher Stanley Kubrick Lewis Carroll – Author of “Alice in Wonderland” Henry Cavendish – Scientist Lee Deforest - Scientist Albert Einstein Abraham Lincoln
I was not trying to poach threads, but have been annoyed by this ridiculing of Asperger's. Instead, I thought of a little awareness raising for other things, too. Different syndrome every month. Until those peaches and hamburgers go away.
The guy seems quite sanguine to your fixation with him.
To tell you the truth, I would not mind joking with geoffkait, if it were leveled. I enjoy a little bit of multi-faceted humor involving a few topics at once. However, like this, I have to make sure my references do not go above what I learned in elementary school.
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