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Tubes & Digital - Is There A Link?

To what extent has the ongoing resurgence in tube components been fueled by audiophiles attempting to "correct" for some of the deficiencies in digital music reproduction? In the pro audio sector the causal relationship is quite clear. As soon as digital music production became prevalent there was an explosion in tube based products, particularly mics and mic preamps, but also equalizers and compressors. There was even line level devices that did nothing to the signal except run it thru a tube based circuit at unity gain. Engineers were upfront in stating that they were trying to add warmth, texture and depth to the digital signal. For audiophiles I'm not sure the link between tubes and digital is as clear cut, but I'm interested in what others think.
onhwy61

Showing 2 responses by gs5556

gs5556
1,242 posts
 
I don't think the focus of tubed recording gear is to "correct" sonic deficiencies of digital but to attempt to deliver a higher quality reproduction. Tubes, inherently, are capable of producing a higher level of detail than solid state. Also, it's argued that tubes produce a more "natural sound" because they generate even-ordered harmonic distortions as do acoustic musical instruments, compared to the odd-ordered distortions produced by solid state. However, tubes are hampered when it comes to high frequency response and bass control. The "warm" sound produced by even-order harmonic distortions is magnified by output transformers (mostly) and, ironically, poor circuit design to some extent.
There is recording gear out there that uses OTL topology in order to take advantage of the tubes inherent qualities - not really to mask the digital sound but to minimize loss of detail in the entire audio recording chain. At least that's my $.02
gs5556
1,242 posts
 
Pendulum Audio and, I think, Mesa. I'm not in the recording biz - the Pendulum gear is something I read about in a guitar mag a while back.
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