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Tube sound Comes, mainly, from? Pre or Power?

I quite like the tube sound and I have become accustomed to it since I was a little kid. So in my own pursuit of the tube sound I have come up with a hypothesis, and I am not sure if it is in fact correct. The way I see it, the phono section and the preamp section pull about a 50-100 multiple the of the amplification done by the power section. Would it be reasonable to assume that the majority of the tube sound would come from the pieces of equipment that do the most amplification (phono and line pre), in terms of multiples? If so this would explain a popular tube pre, solid power combinations that many people utilize. Let me know what you think. I am very curious. Thanks, and please keep in mind that despite the fact that I have been listening to tubed equipment since I was born, I know very little about it and I am in the process of building up my first system.
dfelkai

Showing 3 responses by lewm

lewm
12,543 posts
 

I always feel uncomfortable discussing amplifier types without reference to the speaker. In my opinion, in assembling a good system, one must start with the speakers. Once you have chosen the speakers, then is the time to consider what type of amp is best for driving those speakers. For one glaring bad example, you would not choose a low power SET amplifier to drive say a Wilson audio multi way lower efficiency low impedance speaker. I start out by my lifelong preference for electrostatic speakers with no crossover. For that type of speaker to my ears and in all my years of experimentation, there is no doubt that an OTL amplifier is best. Atmasphere  happens to make the best sounding 0TL amplifiers in my experience. So that’s that. A step up from driving an ESL  through its built in audio step up transformer from an OTL amplifier would be direct drive. In this case the tubes are hooked directly to the panel with no step down transformer in the path. That is a rare situation, and that is why I bought and also listen to the Beveridge 2SW speaker system which is directly driven from its  in built amplifiers.

lewm
12,543 posts
 

I think I was a bit too strong in my anti-transformer statement above. I have heard many transformer coupled tube amplifiers that sound excellent. I will just leave it at that. I do apologize to those who use such amplifiers. But my post was really in defensive response to those who would say that tubes per se add distortions and colorations.

lewm
12,543 posts
 

This might be the world champion of reviving an old thread, since this one is 13 years old this year. I didn’t bother to reread the entire thing, but what most people think of as the tube sound in my mind has to do with the output transformer of tube amplifiers, which even if built to the limits of current technology will always be the limiting factor and at the most distortion of any element in a tube based signal path. Tubes themselves are wide band and very low distortion. Output transformers are imperfect and add all that cuddly warmth etc. that tube aficionados like so well. That is why I have been using output transformer-less tube amplifiers for my entire audio lifespan.

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